


a small chance at redemption

by Aria_Cinabun



Category: Hermitcraft RPF, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: AU, Alternate World, Angst, Based off Renfri from the Witcher, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Blood and Torture, Blood and Violence, False is the main character, False marriage (haha), Forced Marriage, Friendship, Gen, Memorable experiences with torture, No Romance, PTSD, Self-Hatred, lots of blood, poor falsie thinks she's a monster
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:28:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 71
Words: 125,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23871643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aria_Cinabun/pseuds/Aria_Cinabun
Summary: False was taken eleven years ago from the home she'd known, when she was eight.She changed. She adapted. She was made into something else.When she was seventeen, she escaped.But she couldn't return to Hermitville, where her friends were. Because she was no longer False - she was someone else, she was what the kingdom had forced her to become - she was their reigning champion - she was the Queen of Hearts and Body Parts.So she watched them from afar.Because who would want a person as a friend that was so broken inside that she had killed because she'd been forced to, threatened innocents because she'd been forced to, and fought battles side by side the one person she hated the most - the man she'd been forced to marry at sixteen years of age?Was she so messed up that she wanted to rip her husband to shreds? Because she did. So, so, badly...And maybe she deserved the same to be done to her.
Comments: 788
Kudos: 473





	1. Chapter 1

False roamed the woods with her sword strapped on her back and her pocket empty, like normal. The woods on the border of the village she'd once called home, many years ago - it thrived with energy, with the liveliness of her friends. 

It was a quaint little thing - sometimes, if she looked closely from the very borders, she could see the house that she and her now-passed family had once called it home. 

She'd returned only two years ago, after she'd been taken from it by the Dragon Guards, eleven years prior. She was nineteen now, and she'd watched her friends from the life she no longer deserved grow up in the two years she'd watched them, protecting the woods. 

The only thing she carried from her childhood was part of the red and white striped shirt she'd been wearing. She wore the little striped scrap in a twine braided into a tiny braid that she kept tucked under her hair. 

They'd all grown up since she'd been taken. They'd all gotten older - some of them, mature - though some of them hadn't. False smirked as she watched Grian egg Mumbo's house for the third time this week, before she stalked off into the forest once more, watching for wolves and monsters like herself that wanted to attack the people in Hermitville. 

They'd never wondered why they had the fewest deaths of all the villages, calling it a blessing - but False had killed the beasts that had wanted to hurt her friends. 

She was alone.

She was always alone, these days. 

The shouts of the village's daily shenanigans faded into the background as False slipped deeper into the woods. Hunters refused to enter the southern part - they crawled with things as evil as the ancient world, and rarely anybody got out with their lives. 

And since nobody entered, False would be safe from the Dragon Guards - from the people that hunted her, that wanted her back after she'd made her escape from that horrible place they'd taken her, Stress, and Cleo, along with every other girl aged eight through ten throughout the kingdom.

And she'd managed to free her friends - they didn't remember what had happened within the castle, hadn't remembered what she'd done to get them and the other fifty-seven girls out of there, until she remained, the sole champion.

At fourteen, she was the champion - the Queen of Hearts and Body Parts, that was her champion title.

She'd hated it.

But she'd played along until they forgot her original name, and she was only Sin - the name that had been picked for her by the current monarch, short for Sinner. She'd played along until they'd forgotten what village she had come from, she'd played along until they forgot who they could torture if she left - and when they became docile, she'd made her escape. 

Hermitville had been lucky enough to only have three girls in that age range, and not have the boys picked instead - there were far more boys than there were girls. So the three of them had been dragged off, instead of the sixteen boys, for which she was glad. People had died within those walls, because they had been  _ children _ , sentenced to do terrible things so one of them could be named champion. 

There had been a boy champion as well, two years older than her, sixteen when she'd been fourteen. False shuddered at the memory of him.

They'd been forced to fight the battles against the kingdom across the mountains, the generals that the king and queen could never be.

And when False was sixteen, she was forced to marry him.

He was one of the main reasons she'd left. 

She had no reason to go home. They wouldn't want her.

Because of what she was.

A monster.


	2. Chapter 2

Grian giggled when he heard Mumbo's shout of dismay at all the chickens that now roamed his property, clucking and laying even more eggs as they walked and paused. He peeked from around his house as Mumbo looked frantically around for the culprit - but most of the village was either out in the fields, doing their daily jobs, or indoors - still doing their daily jobs. Grian  _ should  _ be designing the new library from the bit of land that they'd finally managed to purchase from the kingdom, but he'd seen the opportunity and taken it. 

"Grian."

Grian spun to see his one-eyed older friend, breathing a sigh of relief when he didn't find Mumbo there. "Oh, thank goodness, Iskall."

Iskall eyed him, itching his gemmed eye in his normal force of habit. He'd lost his eye to a creeper in the Southern Woods three years prior, and had thought it would be a good investment to put an eye-sized diamond there instead. The creeper had been demolished of course - Iskall had taken care of that. "Is it  _ really  _ good to see me, Grian?"

"Of - of course," Grian said, flustered as she tried to rub the eggshells out of his red sweater. "Why wouldn't I want to see my dearest friend?"

Iskall snorted. "You egged Mumbo's house again, didn't you?"

"Iskall?"

From around the corner of the house, Grian heard Mumbo's voice - and panicked. He darted behind Iskall, for once glad that the man with the green sweatshirt had a larger frame than his. 

"Oh, Iskall, it  _ is  _ you! Have you seen Grian anywhere? He egged my house again." Grian nearly snickered, wishing he could see the perplexed look on Mumbo's face. "I'm supposed to be finishing the wiring for the town clock, but I got distracted..."

Grian was fully prepared for Iskall to step aside and give him away, like he sometimes did, but the one-eyed hermit didn't. "No idea, man. I haven't seen him since he was drawing up some crude drawings of the library."

"Fair enough," Grian heard Mumbo say, as he tried to come to terms with Iskall's words.  _ Crude drawings _ ? He was offended. They were pretty good, in his opinion. "I don't know how the guy does it. His drawings are like Xisuma's handwriting - unreadable, but they get the job done."

Grian's jaw dropped, and he resisted the urge to step out from Iskall's back and yell at Mumbo - in a friendly sort of way. 

"What are you doing in the alley anyway?" Mumbo asked.

"You know," Iskall said, trying to act nonchalant - and failing, in Grian's opinion. Mumbo was sort of oblivious though, so Grian doubted the redstoner would notice. "Looking for...monsters. To hunt. I'm doing my job - why aren't you doing yours?"

Mumbo sighed, and Grian could almost  _ hear  _ him stroking his mustache. "Good point. I better get back to that clock before it explodes." Grian heard the telltale footsteps as the redstoner walked away. 

"Explodes?" Iskall called after him as Grian peeped his head out from behind the monster hunter. 

Mumbo didn't answer as his door slammed shut. 

"You owe me something," Iskall said as Grian breathed a sigh of relief and stepped away from the one-eyed man. 

"Sure, whatever," Grian said easily. "What do you want? To get rid of that ugly green carpet in your dining room? Who has  _ carpet  _ in your dining room anyway? I can redesign it, there's this one shipment of white speckled blocks that came in recently - "

"No," Iskall said firmly. "That's  _ diorite _ , dude. You know how much I hate diorite."

Grian pretended to think, unable to hide his smirk. "Do I? Pretty sure that was andesite, you're getting confused, Iskall. I'm sure you'd  _ love  _ to have diorite in your house."

Iskall opened his mouth, disgust on his face, but he never got the chance to say the words. 

Horns blared. 

Soldier horns. 

Usually, these horns were from taxpayers, but Hermitville had already paid their taxes for the year, which meant something important was happening.

Grian saw hermits coming in from the fields as he and Iskall - joined by a glaring Mumbo - walked towards the entrance of the village, where a battalion of soldiers lay on their horses in black and red armor.

"What's this all about?" Cleo asked, clay on her hands from where she'd been designing a statue commission from one of the lords' mansions - Grian didn't know who. "All that clay, gone to waste..." She sighed miserably, brushing her orange hair out of her face, absently tracing the scar on her cheek that she'd gotten when she was nine. Grian felt a pang in his heart at the girl that had gone missing eleven years ago, when all the others had returned, confused and without a memory of what had occurred during the seven months she'd been missing. Shortly after, Stress had been dropped off with different scars, but with no memory as well. 

They'd waited - they'd waited and waited for False to return. 

She never had. 

Every hundred years this taking of children occurred, a price, the kings and queens said, for living in the kingdom. Some died in there - and what happened always remained a secret. 

But False never returned, not a month after, like Stress had after Cleo, not after six months, not after eleven years. Not after all the other girls were returned to the nearby villages, and they rejoiced for the lack of death that had happened within their walls. 

And Grian got the feeling she never would.

Once all nineteen hermits were there, Xisuma shouldered through all of them, looking tired from his village-leader duties, bags under his eyes. "What is the meaning of this?" he demanded. "We paid our taxes."

The captain looked down at Xisuma disdainfully from his position on his black horse, his armor jangling as he reached into the saddlebags and pulled out a scroll of paper, tossing it to X. 

Their village leader took it and rolled the parchment open, and Grian barely saw, from his shorter position, a drawing and some scrawled words. 

"All this for a missing poster?" Xisuma said emphatically. "Some of our stuff got ruined from this, you know - "

"My clay!" Cleo called out from beside Grian, looking thoroughly pissed. 

The soldier rolled his eyes. "That monster is  _ particularly  _ dangerous," he said empathetically. "Even the Dragon Guards are on the watch for her." At his words, Grian shuddered. For the elite guards of the kingdom looking for this monster person, they must've done something truly bad. "She goes by the name of Sinner. If you see her,  _ do not engage _ . She is a deadly shapeshifter who will destroy you villagers so quickly you won't have time to shout. Throw one of your ravens towards the castle, and we'll come with reinforcements to apprehend her." 

"I bet I could take this shapeshifter," Iskall muttered, his hand on the sword at his side. "She can't be that tough."

The captain nodded to his heavily-armored company, and they moved out, riding off down the road to the next town.

"That was stupid," Zedaph huffed, leaning on his hoe. "I was in the middle of planting seeds."

Ren shrugged, hefting his ax. "I don't even remember what tree I was cutting down," he said, a bit sullenly. "I don't get why this was so important."

"You may not, Ren," Xisuma said, waving the paper around. "But this...if there is a killer on the loose, we must be on the lookout. That means  _ no  _ going anywhere outside the village alone." 

Cleo groaned. "Someone has to come to the riverbed with me to get clay? I don't know, X, that seems a bit tedious - "

"Unless you want to die, I suggest doing as I say," Xisuma said passive-aggressively. "This shapeshifter is a cold-blooded killer, and the guards say that she will not hesitate to kill each and every one of us."

"Yeah, but why should we trust them?" Stress asked before she was quickly shushed. 

Xisuma quickly dispersed the crowd, and Iskall and Grian hesitated as they passed the two, so they could hear what Xisuma said to the brown-haired girl.

"I know you hold some distaste for our rulers, but remember that they are always watching," Xisuma said in a low voice as Stress looked down at her feet, nodding. "You especially - you and Cleo, who hides it far better than you. There are reasons unbeknownst to us as to why False went missing, and I would hate to have you gone as well."

Grian felt awkward, suddenly, as Stress began to cry, and made his way back to his house, as if he hadn't just intruded in a conversation. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Mentions of torture and past horrors.

False saw the guards come, and she saw them go from her position in the forest. She saw her old friends disperse, she saw the conversation Xisuma had with Stress - with Grian listening in, she didn't miss that - and she saw the poster Xisuma later nailed to the clocktower, and she saw the hermits disappear back into their daily jobs.

But her attention remained fixated on that little piece of paper twisting in the wind, and she wondered if it was about her. Surely a battalion of guards wouldn't be looking for her after  _ two  _ years? But why else would they be potentially going to every village with these posters?

She had to find out. 

False returned to her temporary camp, about two miles way into the Southern Woods, and bit into an apple she'd gotten from the orchard that Stress had grown with her love and affection over the years. She doubted the bubbly girl would notice a single apple missing - it wasn't like she counted apples.

She refilled her water bottle in the river, and then sat down on the side of a mossy tree and opened her book. 

They were building a library in Hermitville, and Joe had been particularly excited in his scribely duties, accidentally leaving a crate of books behind when he'd brought them into his house. False had picked it up after a few days, rescuing the twenty-seven paperbacked books. 

She'd read all of them, and she'd only had them for six months.

False had never been much of a reader. When she'd been with the other hermits in her childish years, she'd been the one playing in the mud, with sticks for swords, she'd been the one to roll her eyes when Stress would curl up in front of the fireplace and read her books, something the bubbly girl had never stopped doing, her cheeks red - though perhaps not from the fire as she got older. 

She'd been a director, a general.

Everyone had thought she'd become the next village leader.

But then she and Stress and Cleo had been taken. And while the other two girls returned home safely, False never did.

And it wasn't an option anymore.

False didn't want to become a village leader. She thought Xisuma did a pretty neat job of paying the taxes and collecting the money and sorting out any food problems if it arose. That path of her life had branched off long ago.

The stories told tales of beautiful women who fought with swords and rode on dragons and fell in love -  _ true  _ love. False didn't mind those stories, especially those about magic, but it was the ones with sorrowful endings she enjoyed the most.

The ones where everyone died in the end, or the girl was left heartbroken, or the bad guy won.

There was something more realistic about those stories, because they mirrored False's life. There was something nice about reading books where little girls were locked in dungeons for the majority of their life, even if they found happiness in the end. She knew the authors didn't write for her - those authors wrote to write, to connect with their readers metaphorically, not literally. Those cages meant the bounds set by parents, or the lack of money to become a noble, the whips the words said by people, the blood the tears that dripped down faces. 

But for her, those words were literal, were real. And there was something magical about seeing the girl who'd been tortured her entire life find a happy ending, even if it wasn't about love. 

Because maybe she could have a happy ending. 

False put the red-spined book down when the sun no longer shone a light on her reading spot, and stretched from the uncomfortable position she'd been sitting in for six hours. 

She spent the next few hours hunting down some smaller monsters, like zombies and skeletons, who were meandering through the woods, looking for prey. They were the easier enemies - the creepers and the enderman were a lot harder. Luckily they were a lot rarer as well, because False didn't see any. 

And when midnight truly fell, and only a few lights were lit in the village of Hermitville, only then did False creep in, a hand on her sword as she slipped through the front entrance, her hood over her reflective blonde hair, her cowl over the lower half of her face, all green and brown - helping her blend into the forest. The only thing that someone could see if they looked at her directly was a pair of bright blue eyes, which wasn't helpful - many people had blue eyes, like Zedaph, and Joe, and Wels, and TFC, and Jevin...blue eyes weren't all-together  _ rare _ . Besides, they hadn't even seen her in eleven years. They wouldn't recognize her if she pulled her hood down and said a few words.

She wasn't going to though. There was a reason she hadn't introduced herself to her old friends - if they knew that she, or some part of her, was still alive, they'd go searching for her. They'd ask questions she didn't feel like answering. They'd get in trouble with the Dragon Guards - and then all of them would die. 

The torchlight barely illuminated the piece of paper hung to the side of the clocktower, along with a bunch of bounties from the local guild, calling for spider eyes and gunpowder and whatever the local mobs dropped - wool and carrots and vegetables, but False didn't care about those.

No.

It was her - a crude, sketched drawing of her with an angry look on her face, her hood over her head, her hair barely showing. She didn't even look like that -  _ False  _ didn't look like that. Sin did. 

And that's who they were searching for.

Sinner Symmetry. The Queen of Hearts and Body Parts, though it didn't say that on the paper. And they were offering ten  _ thousand  _ gold for her capture. 

The paper ripped from the nail that it was held to as False crumpled her gloved hand, pulling the paper with it accidentally, tears pouring down her face as she stared at the notes that were written in it - the description: blonde hair, blue eyes, twin swords, a bow - that was at camp, she didn't particularly like carrying a bow everywhere she went - but it never said  _ why  _ she was important. 

The sound of a sword leaving its sheath made False turn, trying to clear her vision by blinking, to no avail.

It was Iskall - of course, it was Iskall. He would be patrolling the streets at night after this proclamation had come out, so  _ Sinner  _ wouldn't try to murder anyone in their beds. He had his sword out, holding it as if she was going to leap at him and try to murder him, his pauldrons and lightly padded armor glinting in the torchlight. 

False made no move to move towards him as the tears she couldn't stop continued to stream down her face into her cowl, wetting the fabric. 

Iskall hesitated when he saw her tears, and she saw him wondering if she really  _ was  _ Sinner. Saw the look on his face as he noticed her blue hairs, the strands of golden-blonde hair that peeked out from under her hood.

"False?" he asked in a disbelieving face.

False dropped the tearstained paper and ran. 

And ran and ran and ran and ran. 

And ran until she went back to her camp and collapsed onto her knees, retching from the lack of air she had, tears still streaming down her face - and she didn't know why they came, perhaps it was the disgusted look on Iskall's face when he had first beheld her, or perhaps it was the disbelief when he had noticed the features of one of his oldest friends. 

And False couldn't even find any words to tell Iskall that  _ no _ , it wasn't her. 

She was so, so, stupid.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Mild blood warning

Iskall couldn't sleep that night. 

The haunted eyes of that cloaked girl who had stared at the wanted poster of Sinner - who _was_ Sinner, whether Iskall liked it or not. He'd poured over that poster, gathering the needed details so he could kill her on sight, but when he'd had the opportunity, he couldn't. He'd seen her slightly curved pair of swords, the cape on her back, the whispy golden hair that was hidden below her cape, the brilliant blue eyes that reminded him of his childhood friend. 

But False was dead. Had to be. She would've embraced him with the happiness of homecoming, not ran away as Sinner had done. False had been missing for eleven years now - she couldn't be alive, not after Stress and Cleo had returned and the blonde warrior hadn't. 

A lot of girls had blonde hair and blue eyes. 

Not a lot of girls had that sadness in them. 

Iskall stared at the paper in front of him, some of the lines ruined from the small splatters of water that had dropped down upon it. 

Why?

Why had that girl been crying over a poster if she really was a cold-hearted, bloodthirsty monster like the paper _insisted_ she was? Unless Sinner had a twin - and he very much doubted she did - something was wrong here.

There were always two sides to every story.

And he had only heard one. 

***

"I don't see how this is necessary," Grian groaned, flipping his knife in his hand as he leaned against the nearest tree. 

Cleo rolled her eyes from her position by the river, elbows deep in the clay as she scooped it into the bucket, nearly grimacing at the crayfish she upset. "Yeah, well, you know what Xisuma said."

"I _know_ what he said," Grian pointed out. "But I don't _understand_ it. I'm supposed to keep you safe? That's ridiculous. We have nothing to worry about. The shapeshifter is probably on the other side of the kingdom."

Cleo sat back on her heels, letting out a long breath as she finally finished filling the bucket of clay. "You know Grian," she said finally, using the cool river water to wash the excess off her hands. "You're right. It _is_ ridiculous. _You?_ Protect me? Impossible." She smirked as Grian choked on nothing, dropping his dagger as he stared at her. 

"Wha - what? You know, at least Mumbo isn't protecting you. I'm not Iskall or Wels, but I'm not him either."

Cleo ran her hands through her hair as she hauled the bucket up. "Yeah, point taken. Mumbo's more likely to stab himself than any enemy."

They laughed together, and Grian took a step forward to help Cleo with the bucket of heavy clay, but he stopped, tilting his head to the side, his honey-blonde hair perfectly still. 

"Are you going to help me?" Cleo asked, weirded out by Grian's reaction. 

"Do you hear that?" Grian asked softly.

Cleo sighed and closed her eyes, concentrating on the nature around them. "Hear what? I don't hear anything."

"Exactly."

Cleo's eyes widened as she realized the meaning of Grian's words - there was no birdsong, no wind, not even a little breeze - nothing, nothing, nothing - no animals, no wind...

A crashing sound was the only noise.

Grian whirled, picking up the dagger from the forest floor and drawing his sword as Cleo dropped the bucket of clay and drew her own sword. "What is that?" she asked desperately, her eyes searching for a target - _any_ target, anything that could be making that noise. 

She screamed when she saw the giant spider, with clicking mandibles and gleaming red eyes barreling through the forest toward them on eight legs. It had to be twice the size of her. 

"RUN!" Grian screamed, and made a beeline through the woods back through Hermitville. 

Cleo followed him, the clicking of the spider making her run faster as she nearly tripped over tree roots, refusing to look back - 

Something sticky wrapped around her left leg and _tugged_ her back, making her exhale a loud shriek as webbing wrapped around the bottom of her legs. 

Grian turned, looking scared, but he rushed back for her as Cleo stared up into the eyes of the giant spider, her hands trying to keep the spider's chelicerae from biting her, and beyond the furry fangs she saw the gleam of teeth as it tried to bite her. 

"GO!" she screamed at Grian as he rushed toward her, intent on saving her. "RUN AWAY!" Cleo kicked up the spider and managed to hit its thorax, causing it to screech and back off, clicking and hissing as she circled it. 

"No way," Grian panted, tossing her his dagger, for Cleo's weapon had been dropped when she'd been grabbed by the sticky web.

The spider leaped for them, and Cleo screamed and put up her dagger, shirking away from it, closing her eyes. _Killed by a spider_ ? she chided herself. _Really, Cleo? There are better ways to go_. 

A whistling sound filled the air, and the spider never struck its killing blow.

She opened her eyes to see it dead not a foot from her leg, eyes staring into nothingness, an arrow through one of its many eyes. 

"Did you do that?" Grian whispered, staring at it in wonder.

"Does it _look_ like I was carrying a bow?" Cleo asked him incredulously, looking around for the person responsible for the feather-tipped arrow that Grian poked cautiously, and then toed the spider, checking if it still breathed. 

"It's dead."

Cleo spun to see a golden-haired girl with brilliant blue eyes leaning on a bow, twin swords strapped to her back. 

"You!" Grian yelped, pointing his sword toward her. "I saw the poster - you're that shapeshifter!"

The girl raised an eyebrow, and her mouth twisted into one that mirrored a look of resentment - but she didn't draw an arrow and shoot it at either of the pair, though Cleo kept her dagger in hand, wary. 

"Shapeshifter?" the girl asked. "Oh, no, I'm not a shapeshifter."

"What are you, then?" Cleo dared to ask. 

"I am...I was born human," the golden-haired girl said, tripping up on her own words. 

"And what are you now?" Grian asked, speaking the question Cleo would never have ventured to ask.

"I am a monster," the girl purred, keeping her bow firmly in hand as she prowled towards the pair, never taking her eyes off either of them, a dangerous light in her eyes. "I am the Queen of Hearts and Body Parts." She paused for a second and shrugged. "You can call me Sin." 

"You are Sinner," Cleo hissed. "Don't take a step nearer." 

Sin stared down at the dagger pointed at her chest and laughed softly, using her index finger to turn the sharp end away. "I'm not here to kill you, idiots. If I wanted you dead, I would've had the spider kill you." She stepped between them, put her foot up on the spider head, and yanked her arrow out, scoffing at the blood that adorned it. 

"Why are you here?" Grian asked, his voice shaking slightly.

"I'm here to hide," Sin said softly as she made her way towards the river, Cleo and Grian following her curiously. 

"From the Dragon Guards?" Cleo asked.

"No," Sin snapped. "From everyone who lies in this kingdom who wishes to get rid of me." She stepped over Cleo's discarded bucket and stood at the edge of the river, arrow in hand. "Which is mostly everyone, at this point." Sin looked over her shoulder at Cleo, eyes wary. "Shall I add you to my list?"

"No," Cleo said, handing the dagger back to Grian, who gaped at her.

"What - but - "

"We owe her our lives," Cleo snapped at the red-sweatered man. "That says something about a person."

"The soldiers said she was evil!" Grian pointed out. 

Sin spun, anger in her eyes, her mouth twisted into a smile. Cleo took a step back from the sheer violence that lay within the woman's fair features. "And you believe everything the kingdom tells you?" she spat, nodding at Cleo. "What about you, Cleo? I know how you got that scar. I know why you and Stress hate the monarchy."

Cleo gaped at her. "How do you know my name?"

"The same way I know what happened to you when you were nine," Sin said, anger alight in her beautiful blue eyes. "I was _there_ when it happened. You may have gone home, Cleo, you, and Stress - but I stayed, and I paid my price." 

She spun, tossing her arrow out into the roaring river. 

"Seems like a waste," Grian said amicably, while Cleo tried to come to terms with what Sin had said. 

Sin snorted, and then her hands shot out, and Cleo watched with wide eyes as a ball of water rose from the river, her arrow enclosed within it, no longer covered in green spider blood. Sin reached out and plucked her arrow from the ball of water, and it collapsed like normal water, back into the river. 

"Who are you?" Cleo breathed. "What the _hell_ are you?"

"Like I said," Sin said, stalking away from the pair. "I'm a monster. And I paid my price."

"Wait - " Grian said, but the woman took off into a dead run into the woods, never looking back.

"We've got to go," Cleo said, picking up the mostly-empty bucket on the ground and grabbing Grian's hand, her fellow hermit staring into the now-empty woods. "Come on! We've got to tell X!"

She took off into a dead run through the woods, back to Hermitville, the birds chirping in the woods once more, as if nothing had gone wrong.

As if Cleo's entire world hadn't been knocked off-axis. 


	5. Chapter 5

False felt the tears fall down her face as she heard the loud footsteps of Grian and Cleo to fade into the distance, birdcalls and the sound of rushing water filling its silence.

She'd made a mistake.

She'd made a huge mistake; one that might cost the hermits their lives.

Oh, she was so stupid. 

Why had she told Cleo she'd known her past? 

But she couldn't resist it - had seen the longing look that Cleo often cast unintentionally while rubbing the scar on her face. Sure, perhaps innocence _was_ bliss - but it wasn't the best option for Cleo. 

What was the best option?

She couldn't tell them that False was still alive, a part of her, inside her, inside the body of Sinner Symmetry, the Queen of Hearts and Body Parts, the woman who had been married at sixteen, the girl who murdered hundreds to save the lives of her fellow hermits. The girl who waited and waited until her captors forgot about Hermitville. 

The girl who would never go home because of what she had become.

False held out a hand, and water flowed out of the air into her palm, creating a perfect teardrop of water, floating there. She wiggled her fingers, and the teardrop flowed into a sphere, a cube, a cylinder...

That had been her price.

Humans didn't have magic, not anymore. It was all corrupted now.

Kian...the king and the queen...they all had corrupted magic. Pure magic,  _ mage  _ magic, didn't exist anymore. It had died with the friendship between the North and the South.

Perhaps the characters from her books with magic were deemed heroes, but False was the farthest thing from a hero that one could possibly be.

Perhaps _she_ was the villain in this tale. 

* * *

Cleo came hurtling into town, dodging hermits left and right as they went around their morning duties, before some of them disappeared back into their houses or went to the fields and orchards. She avoided Zedaph, barely, Grian running into the poor guy with a hurried, "Sorry!" before they continued on their path to Xisuma's house. 

She ignored the shouts when she upended a few barrels and crashed into people, their shouts echoing after her. 

Cleo didn't bother knocking when she crashed through Xisuma's door, the man's honey-smelling house as it normally was, pots of honey and yellow carpets and beds filling the room, a crackling fireplace the only light. 

Xisuma stood up, an angry look on his face as Grian stopped behind Cleo, both of them breathing hard from the run. "Cleo! Grian! What is the meaning of this?" On the chair next to him, Iskall looked curious at the current predicament. 

"We were attacked," Cleo said, putting her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. 

"I don't see - " Xisuma started, but Iskall interrupted him,

"By False?"

Grian shook his head. "What? No. By a giant spider."

"Grian, Cleo," Xisuma sighed. "I'm in the middle of an important meeting. Giant spiders - "

"And we were saved by Sinner," Cleo said.

Xisuma paused, and Iskall stood up, his eyes alight with hope. 

"What?" the village leader managed to croak out. He waved Cleo and Grian to silence. "No, just come on in - your story is related to Iskall's anyway."

Grian closed the door behind them as the pair sat down next to the fireplace, Cleo putting out her hands to warm them by the fire from the cold hilt of the knife and the cold river water she'd had her hands on. 

"Start from the beginning, please," Xisuma said. 

"Well, we went out to collect clay," Cleo started after a second. "And Grian was complaining - "

"I was _not_ complaining!"

Cleo rolled her eyes at her friend's antics. "You were too complaining."

"Was not!"

Xisuma sighed loudly. "Guys, please."

Iskall looked like he was trying not to laugh, a smirk evident on his face. 

"As I was saying before I was so _rudely_ interrupted," Cleo said, a small laugh slipping out of her as Grian pouted. "We were collecting clay, and we were attacked by a spider. Sinner shot it with an arrow, told us she wasn't a shapeshifter, told us she was born a human, mentioned _me_ by name, told me she knew what happened in the castle where I have memory gaps, and said something about us not trusting the kingdom because of what it's done to its people."

"And - "

"And nothing," Cleo interrupted, throwing a glare at Grian, who looked confused. "The end." 

"See!" Iskall was on his feet, pointing at Xisuma. "I told you!"

Cleo looked from Iskall to Xisuma. "What?"

"I saw Fa - Sinner last night," Iskall said. "And I was going to attack her, because, you know, she's _wanted_ and all that, but she was holding her own poster, and she heard me, and she turned, but she didn't even draw her sword. And she was _crying_."

Grian rolled his eyes. "Good job, Iskall. Don't kill the crying girl who looked like the mass murderer." 

"Yeah, well, I don't see you trying to kill Sinner either," Iskall retorted. "And she wasn't even crying."

"She saved our lives," Cleo reminded the one-eyed monster hunter. 

"And she said she wasn't a shapeshifter?" Xisuma said, disrupting the banter that was currently going on between Iskall and Grian.

"Uh, yes," Cleo said. 

"And she said she was human?" 

"No," Cleo said. "She said she was born human. She said she was a monster now."

"That's settled," Xisuma said with a sigh. "Iskall, I need you to take Wels and Stress out there to find her."

"What - me?" Iskall said, pointing to himself.

"No, the other Iskall," Grian snickered. 

Xisuma ignored the red-sweatered hermit. "Iskall, this is serious. Take Wels and Stress and capture her, or kill her - I don't care, get her out of our area before she kills one of us."

"She wouldn't!" Cleo cried, but she wasn't sure that was true. 

Xisuma turned to her. "I'm sorry, Cleo, but that was one time. I need to focus on the welfare of the entire village, not the idealistic values of three people. She could be trying to get close to us, and that's when she'll strike, and we'll all end up dead."

"False would never!" Iskall retorted. 

Xisuma took Iskall by the shoulders. "Iskall," he said gently. "False is dead. This is just another blue-eyed blonde-haired girl who knows how to wield a sword. I trust you will do your duties as a monster hunter and either kill her, or bring her here so we can collect the bounty."

"They are _hunting_ her!" Cleo cried, clenching her hands into fists. "You're just going to turn her over?"

Xisuma eyed her. "I don't know this girl, Cleo - none of us do."

"And if it really is False?" Iskall asked. "What if it is?"

"If it were False," Xisuma said gently. "Than she would've joined the village already, not skulked into the woods and looked at her own wanted posters in the middle of the night. I'm sorry, Iskall, but False died a long time ago. Stop putting your feelings ahead of your duty and do your job. I'm not asking you to kill her, just...get her back here so we can all evaluate her."

Iskall dropped his head. "Yes," he said in a resigned tone. "Of course."


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Blood and mild swearing.

False was reading another one of her books, this one about a princess who escaped from her home on an adventure and fell in love with a pirate. It was a stupid love story, really, but it made her feel better, though she would never be a princess, or fall in love with a pirate and dance on the deck of a ship in the lantern light. 

A scream echoed in the woods.

False dropped her book and ran.

_ I swear _ , she thought to herself as she drew her swords, leaving her unstrung bow and quiver of arrows behind.  _ If this is Grian and Cleo again, I might just scream.  _ She really, really, didn't want to go towards that noise. But what if they were her friends - what if they were people she'd known for almost forever?

What if they were Dragon Guards?

False gritted her teeth as she ran through the brush, leaping nimbly over tree roots and ducking under branches in the direction of the scream. As she crossed the wood, she could hear the crunch of swords and the hiss of spiders. 

False burst in the clearing to find Wels on the floor, clutching an injured shoulder, blood pouring out between the cracks of his armor. His weapon lay discarded under the legs of a blue spider as it hissed. Stress was against a tree, blood pouring out of a particularly deep wound in her stomach. False's stomach dropped when she realized she didn't see the pink-cloaked girl's chest rise and fall. 

Iskall stood near her, desperately fighting another spider, this one black with glowing yellow eyes. In the center of the clearing, Stress's sword was embedded in the eye of yet a third spider, this one fortunately dead. 

Wels was scooting back on his arms, staring at the spider as it hovered over him.

False rushed over and jumped on its back, stupidly acting on her instincts.

The spider screeched and rose on its back legs, trying to get her off as False stabbed down on its hard body armor, the sword just  _ pinging  _ off. She gritted her teeth as she rolled off it.

Wels stared at her as he lunged for his sword, standing up and pointing first at her, and then the spider, back and forth. Behind her, Iskall seemed to be in the same conundrum. 

"Come  _ on _ !" False shouted, banging her swords together to create some noise. 

Iskall yelped as the spider he was facing cut a nasty line down his hand, making him drop his sword. 

"Hey!" False called after Iskall's spider, dodging a swipe from the blue spider that was trying to behead her - or eat her, she didn't know. "Eight eyes!"

The black spider turned and hissed, and Iskall took that opportunity to rush over to Stress, kneeling down by her side and looking for her pulse.

Both of the spiders leaped at her. 

False leaped into a roll, just narrowly missing the webbing that shot out of the black spider. "Idiot," she taunted. 

"Whhhyyyy doooeeesss a felllooowwww monnnssstterr priiccckkk ussss wiiitthhhh ittsss shhharrrppp stttiiiccckkkssss?" the blue spider hissed. 

False grinned. "Monsters aren't always allied," she said. 

And then she leaped at the blue spider, burying both of her swords in two of its eight eyes. It screeched as it died, and the black spider backed away, turning to eye Iskall, who lay crouched over Stress, not paying attention. 

False turned to Wels, who was inching closer, eyeing her warily. "Give me your sword!" she said. 

"No - " Wels started. 

False hissed and pulled out one of her blades, green and sticky from the spider's blood, and smelling like absolute shit. 

By now, the black spider was standing over Iskall and Stress, its mandibles clicking as it beheld its prey.

"ISKALL!" Wels yelled, running towards the two. He wasn't going to make it in time. She saw it, he knew it, she knew what to do.

False yelled and threw her sword. 

It narrowly passed by Wels, head over tails, spinning in the air as the spider brought up one of its bladed legs to stab down at Iskall, who stared up at certain death, hugging Stress to his body, the hopefully-unconscious girl not stirring. 

The blade sank hilt deep in the spider's upraised head. 

And it collapsed to the side, hissing as it died, its shrieks scaring off the local wildlife, green blood leaking everywhere. 

False was left panting, weaponless, still in her throwing position as Iskall and Wels turned towards her. 

She ran past Wels towards Stress, shoving him aside as he tried to block her. "Get out of my way." 

He moved.

Well, more like he fell, panting to the ground when she touched his injured shoulder. 

Stress was barely breathing, blood staining her pink leather armor, her eyes closed, shallow breaths coming in and out. 

"What's wrong with her?" Iskall said, trying to apply pressure to the wound. 

"Cave spider poison," False grunted, pushing Iskall aside and hefting Stress up. "She needs medical attention,  _ now _ ."

"What are you  _ doing _ ?" Wels demanded from the ground. "Taking her off to kill her? Don't think I didn't hear what you said to that spider."

False shrugged. "She's going to die within half an hour if you do not get her to Hermitville," she warned, looking Wels up and down, and then turning to Iskall. "I don't suppose either of you can run three miles in twenty-five minutes, injured?"

Iskall shook his head, and Wels sputtered. 

"That's what I thought," False said. She jerked her head at Wels. "Iskall. Help him back."

"You're just going to  _ let  _ her take our friend?" Wels demanded Iskall as the monster hunter walked away from False. 

"We cannot help Stress," she heard Iskall say as False broke into yet another dead sprint, this one back to Hermitville - to save yet another friend. If this was her track record, she'd have saved all of them by the time that the week was over. "If she is who I think she is, she will get Stress to help safely."

"And if she is not?"

"Then Stress is dead anyway," she heard Iskall say, before it was just her breathing.

Just her breathing, the pounding of her feet against the ground, the empty sheathes of her swords -  _ Dammit, I left them behind _ \- and listening for Stress's breathing, the girl pale as blood leaked from the gut wound on her chest. 

_ Please don't die, Stress _ .

_ Please don't die _ . 

_ Do. Not. Die _ .

False had never run harder in her life. Never. Not during a battle, not running from the castle when she was younger, not running away from those who wanted to hurt her - those who  _ had  _ hurt her - none of it. 

Her feet flew over the distance as Stress faded in her arms.

"False?"

False looked down to see the bleary eyes of the girl in her arms. "Yeah," she gasped. "Yeah, it's me. False." At least if the girl died, she would die in the arms of someone she thought was her friend. 

"You...you're back..."

"Yeah, of course, I'm back," False said, tears blurring her vision. "I'm sorry I left and never came home." It was something that she had never wanted to say, but couldn't help saying after all these years.

"I'm sorry I thought you were dead," Stress gasped, coughing out blood. "That I never went looking for you because I was too afraid to."

False concentrated on the wall that came into view instead of the girl in her arms as tears flooded her vision, threatening to choke her. "I'm sorry too." 

_ I'm sorry for not being who you want me to be.  _

_ I'm sorry for not being strong enough. _

_ I'm sorry for not saying goodbye.  _

Stress started choking, and False sobbed as she ran headfirst into Mumbo, who stared at her. 

"I NEED MILK!" she screamed at him, laying Stress on the ground.

"Who are you?" Mumbo asked first, confused, and then his gaze went down to the girl who was choking on her own blood. "Stress - "

"She's dying," False snapped. "Milk, a red mushroom, and some oranges -  _ now _ ." 

By now other hermits had gathered around them, staring at her - staring at who she was. 

"ARE YOU GOING TO LET HER DIE?" False shrieked, cupping Stress's face, returning her attention to the girl. "Come on, Stress,  _ please _ ..."

She saw Xisuma push through the crowd, she saw the terrified looks on the hermit's faces - she saw but really didn't see Stress fail to draw breath. 

"What did you do to her?" the village leader asked. 

False sobbed. "I didn't do  _ anything _ ," she said, trying to bring it off as anger. "You stupid girl." The last part was directed at Stress. 

And in a breath that only False could hear, because the ingredients for the poison cure was too far oof, Stress said, "...when...when...I die..."

"You're not going to die," False said. 

Stress smiled sadly. "...return...return...me...to the water...please."

"That will be in a long, long time," False whispered, trying to convince herself more than the brown-haired girl who lay in the middle of a dusty road.

Stress smiled and closed her eyes. 

And she did not draw breath again. 

False raised her head to meet the angry and shocked eyes of the hermits. 

"You killed her," Tango said in an accusing voice.

But False wasn't paying attention to her childhood friends. 

_ Water _ . 

"Water," she murmured. "Water...water is life."

The hermits grew nearer, clutching swords as they stared at Stress and False, disbelief on their face - but this was no illusion, no -

False stood up. "Stand back," she hissed, standing over Stress protectively. "Stand back or she will die."

"She's already dead," Grian pointed out, and she saw the builder's eyes glisten with unshed tears. 

"I can save her," False insisted. 

"Nobody can beat death," Xisuma said, but even he had hope in his eyes. 

"Stand. Back," she hissed.

And with a few grumbles, they stepped back, until a wide circle surrounded False. 

False took a deep breath, sinking deep in herself where her magic lay, trapped behind its usual lock and chain she kept it behind. But now...now she needed out. 

She'd only figured out she had water magic recently, in the last eight months, and wondered what her  _ husband  _ would've thought of that - all the testing they'd done on her had actually succeeded. 

False released the breath, and at the same time reached for the water droplets that lay in the air, in the weeds in the ground, in the grass patches surrounding Stress, and she  _ took  _ it. 

She took the life from the plants and weeds, and she drew water from the air until she was breathing almost nothing, until she had to hold her breath - but that didn't matter. 

False screamed as pain flared from within, pain from lack of practice, pain from going too fast too quickly, but she continued on - she had to, she had to, she  _ had  _ to, for Stress.

For her friend. 

And when False opened her eyes, water encircled Stress, and the girl floated feet above the ground, surrounded in blue water and shining green  _ life _ . The plant life around them was dead, was wilted, the grass brown and dead, the tiny animals stirring below the ground withering under the life force she drew from them.

She ignored the surprised shouts that filled the air. She ignored everything but the globe of water and life surrounding Stress.

And she forced that life into Stress.

Stress's eyes opened and she  _ screamed _ , but that meant she was  _ alive _ , even as life poured down her throat, Lifewater encircling her as the girl grappled nothing in the water, but still False kept going, her hands shaking, dropping to one knee as she forced every drop of life in the plants surrounding her into Stress. 

Her magic left her in a rush, and Stress dropped to the street, her clothes and hair dripping wet, her eyes closed. False lay on her knees, staring at the girl who still did not breathe, who -

Who coughed and opened her eyes. 

The hermits  _ cheered _ , rushing Stress, ignoring False as she backed away, back towards the gates, she could get away before it was too late - 

"False!"

False closed her eyes at Stress's voice - she was  _ at  _ the entrance, all she had to do was take off running, just  _ leave _ , and never come home. But instead, she turned. "I think you have the wrong person," she told the drenched girl, who was helped by Cleo onto her feet. "I'm not False."

"You are," Stress insisted. "You told me you were. You told me you were sorry for not coming home."

False laughed. "You just died, Stress. You're being delirious." 

"I am  _ not  _ being delirious," Stress said angrily, tucking her wet hair behind her ears as the other hermits stared on in confusion at the exchange that was happening. "I know what I heard."

"You heard  _ wrong _ ," False hissed. 

"Why?" Stress said softly. "Why are you so obstinate to insist that you aren't False?"

False felt tears filling her eyes as she stood by the gates, the hermits watching her, Stress watching her sadly. "You want to know why I couldn't possibly be False?" she said, choking on her words. "BECAUSE FALSE IS DEAD!" Her last words are said in a shriek, and Stress, along with Cleo and every other hermit, looks taken aback. "False died three years ago. She's not coming home.  _ My  _ name is Sinner. Stop calling me by a name that's meant for your peaceful childhood friend who  _ doesn't exist anymore _ ." 

"False - " Stress started, but False cut across her words.

"Stop. Stop, Stress. I'm not your friend. Your friend was a good person."

"And you're not?" Stress challenged. 

False laughed coldly. "No. Not by far."

"You saved my life," Stress said. 

"And one life saved is enough to make up for the hundreds that I took?" False challenged, raising her eyebrow. Stress sputtered, unable to talk. "That's what I thought."

And she walked away. 

She just walked away.

She was done here. 

She ignored the shouts that came after her. She didn't look back. She knew they wouldn't chase after her. She passed by Iskall and Wels, who were stumbling towards the village. They asked her questions, but she ignored them. Ignored them, as tears poured down her face and she had to fight to not burst into sobs in front of the two warriors as she yanked her swords out of the spiders and walked away.

But she couldn't bring herself to move her camp to another village a hundred miles away. 

She couldn't bring herself to abandon her - no, not her,  _ False's  _ \- friends.


	7. Chapter 7

Stress was unsteady on her feet, which made sense - apparently, according to everyone and False - she refused to call that girl _Sinner_ , because she didn't care what everyone said, that was _False_ \- she had died. 

And now she sat in one of the chairs in the center of the village. Most people were standing, but she and Wels were sitting, the monster hunter had also been injured in the monster fight, though not to the extent that she had. 

" - and then she threw the sword and it flew across the clearing and hit the spider," Iskall was saying, recounting the spider fight they'd had. His hand was bandaged up, but he still clenched it into a fist. "And then... _False_ \- " Stress was glad she wasn't the only one as the hermits around her sighed and rolled her eyes. " - took Stress and ran the three miles in the twenty minutes she said it would take."

"Damn," she heard TFC mutter under his breath next to her. "That's pretty fast."

Xisuma sighed and rubbed his eyes. "So what you - " He pointed at Iskall. " - and Stress are trying to say is that _False_ is running around in the woods fighting giant spiders with magic on the tips of her fingertips? I didn't even know magic existed."

"I did," Grian said, filling the silence with his voice. He blushed as everyone looked at him. "I - Cleo and I, when we were getting clay and Sin saved us from a giant spider, she used her water magic to clean off an arrow."

"And why exactly didn't you say this earlier?" Xisuma said angrily.

Grian shrank under the wrathful eyes of X. "I, uhm, ask Cleo. She's the one who didn't want to say that Sin had magic."

Xisuma turned to Cleo. "Cleo? Why would you do that?"

Cleo looked at her feet. "I didn't want her to seem more of a monster than she was already portrayed as. She's part human, X, whether you like it or not. Had you found out earlier, you would have tried to kill her because she's different." Cleo met Stress's eyes. "Now, I don't know if Sinner is False, but she knows what happened in the castle when...you know." Stress nodded at the orange-haired girl. "We shouldn't kill her."

Xisuma sighed. "You've heard the sides," he told the other hermits reluctantly. "Who here believes that _Sinner_ is False?"

Stress and Iskall raised their hands.

They were the only ones. 

"And who believes that we should capture Sinner and take her back to the capitol?" Xisuma continued. 

Stress kept her hand by her side. Iskall did as well. Wels glanced apologetically at her as he raised his own hand. Grian didn't raise his, but Mumbo did. Cleo didn't lift her hand either.

The rest of the hermits raised their hands, and after a moment, Xisuma did as well.

"Thirteen to four," the village leader said. "Motion passed." He glanced at Stress, Cleo, Iskall, and Grian apologetically. "Sorry." 

"Well, count me out, then," Iskall said with a huff.

Stress stood up. "Me too. I'm not going to capture _my friend_ if I didn't vote for it to happen. Find some other people."

"Yeah, see, that's kind of the problem," Wels spoke up. "If Iskall won't do it, and I'm injured, then we don't have enough people." 

Xisuma sighed. "...I'll send a message to the capitol, then," he said finally. "If nobody will go out and find a _murderer_."

"There is no proof she's a murderer!" Cleo said. "She saved my life - five lives in total."

"She said it herself," Mumbo said quietly. "What are the five lives to the many more she has killed?"

* * *

Cleo ran through the woods, Stress hot on her tail. Technically, they weren't supposed to be out - but Xisuma had sent Tango, Jevin, and Python out with swords and torches, and she had to get there before they did. 

She didn't know whether to believe, like Stress and Iskall did, if Sinner was False - but she knew that Sinner wasn't evil, and didn't deserve to be _returned_ to a place where she didn't want to go.

Sinner probably had her reasons, none of them good. 

It was nearing nightfall, and Cleo was growing hungry and tired, Stress gasping behind her. But she wasn't _going_ to wait - they had to find Sinner as quickly as possible, before someone else did - but then she realized that Stress had literally died two days ago. 

"We've been out here for hours," the pink-cloaked girl said with a small gasp. "Where are we going?"

"We need to find Sin before the others do," Cleo said softly. "They'll kill her."

Stress blanched. " _What_ ? No. They can't kill her - she'd _False_ , she's our friend - "

Cleo placed a hand on Stress's shoulder. "Look, I don't know whether she's False or not, but you're right, they can't kill her. She saved my life, and yours, and Iskall's, and Grian's, and Wel's. Just because she's listed as a murderer doesn't make her one." Cleo rubbed her forehead. "Don't tell anyone...but I've been having second thoughts about this kingdom. They kidnapped you and I and False when we were little girls, along with fifty-seven others, all of whom returned save False. And nobody blinked an eye? Just because we live here doesn't give them a right to my kids. I would rather die than have my children ripped from me." 

Stress nodded. "Yes, but we were a bunched of orphaned children. This village started out as a few small houses and caretakers, and we made it better as we grew up. There were no parents to protect us, Cleo."

"I don't want my children to live in a life where they can be freely taken away from us, and do nothing about it," Cleo said, clenching her hands into fists. "I bet you that Sin was a child ripped away from her mother's arms - or if she is False, then she's still in the same boat." 

"I don't get it," Stress muttered. "Why won't she admit to being False, but still hangs around here, killing monsters that try to kill us?"

"Her choices are beyond my level of comprehension," Cleo said. 

"Now you sound like Joe," Stress teased. 

" _What_ are you two doing here?"

Both girls spun at the sound of Sin's voice.

The blonde-haired girl stood, her swords sheathed on her back, her bow in hand, eyeing them warily.

"Fal - " Stress said, but Cleo elbowed her into silence. 

"Sin," she said friendly. "Just the person we were looking for."

"Just because I saved your life," Sin hissed. "Doesn't make us friends. Go back to your village, Cleo. You don't want anything to do with me." 

"We can _help_ you," Stress insisted, her brown eyes full of hurt. "Please, False. Come back home."

"I don't have a home anymore," Sin said. "And stop calling me by that _stupid_ name. It doesn't belong to me. Go tell that to the girl who was waiting for you, who stayed in the castle so all of you would live, who died there, alone."

Stress's jaw dropped. 

Cleo sighed. "We didn't come here to tell you to come back to Hermitville," she said softly.

"I did," Stress muttered, crossing her arms. 

"I'm guessing it's also not to come back to get the crate of books I picked up?" Sin said, propping her free hand on her hip. "Yeah, I'm not sorry about this. Forests can get lonely." 

"Well - " Stress started. 

"Xisuma sent a pigeon to the capitol for help capturing you," Cleo blurted out. Sin's eyes widened. "There are three people from Hermitville currently combing the woods for you - have been, for the past two days. And more people are coming, possibly Dragon Guards. They will find you, and they will kill you. You have to _run_."

"Stupid _idiot_ ," Sin said, looking up at the sky, anger in her pretty blue eyes. She didn't seem like she was talking to Cleo or Stress, though. "You have doomed yourselves."

"What?" Cleo asked incredulously. 

Sin laughed, shoulders shaking. "All I've done, and we're back to square one." She rubbed her face, and Cleo saw a glimpse of tears on her face before she pulled her hand away and there was nothing. "You think that the Dragon Guards will come for me? Oh, no, Cleo - they will come for all of you, and they will make sure I can never leave the castle again."

"How?" Stress asked. 

"By torturing _you_ until you listen," Sin hissed, and Cleo took a step back, taken aback by the ferociousness in the girl's voice. "By making sure the people I once called friends are at stake until _I_ listen, until _I_ do what they want me to do, until _I_ become the puppet that they've always wanted me to be." 

"Oh, no," Cleo said, horror filling her. 

"And they will flush me out of these woods by killing each of you, one at a time," Sin said. "You have made a mistake - I know Xisuma wants the best for the village, but he can be so _stupid_ sometimes."

"What do we do?" Stress asked desperately. "We can't let them take us - I can't go back - "

"You're lucky you don't remember that place, Stress," Sin said quietly. "You and I would be sharing the same dreams I have had for eleven years." She sighed. "I need to turn myself in, and hope that they don't' do anything else."

"But - " Stress started. 

"I'm probably going to die, yes," Sin said. "But at least you guys will be safe."

"Why do you care about us so much?" Cleo asked as Sin began a leisurely pace back towards Hermitville. 

"Because there was a girl that I once knew so well," Sin said softly. "And she broke under the strain of the kingdom. There was once a girl with big dreams and high hopes, and she fell alongside those dreams and hopes." Sin sneered. "She would've wanted me to protect my - _her_ friends."

Cleo glanced at Stress, noticing the slipup. The brown-haired girl mouthed, "False?" at Cleo, who rolled her eyes.

"The future is a horrible thing," Sin continued, eyeing Cleo and Stress. "But the past is even worst. And it catches up to you - it _always_ catches up to you. Remember that, Stress, Cleo - your past is about to catch up to you as well."


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Swearing and mentions of murder

False felt the dread in her chest as she entered the village, felt the eyes on her as Cleo and Stress walked on either side of her. 

If Xisuma had just told her his intentions, she would've turned herself over long before. But he'd called in backup in the form of Dragon Guards, and because of it, they all could die. 

Why did the village leader trust a kingdom that had stolen sixty girls from their beds?

Oh, right. 

Because she was a murderer. 

Iskall appeared in front of them, wary - but he hadn't drawn his sword, so that was something. "Cleo?" he asked cautiously. "Stress? What is the meaning of this?"

"Mistakes have been made," Cleo muttered. 

Stress just shrugged.

"You guys aren't even carrying weapons," Joe said from the crowd that was slowly forming around the trio. 

Sin snorted. "Yeah, real smart idea," she said, elbowing Cleo and Stress in unison. "Just like...NOTIFYING THE FUCKING KINGDOM OF ME BEING HERE? ARE YOU _CRAZY_?"

Her shout made everyone take a step back, surprised in her change of tone.

"Well, that escalated," Stress muttered. 

Xisuma stepped through the crowd, eyes wary. "I did what I thought best. Step away from her, Cleo, Stress."

"Yeah, well what you thought best is _idiotic_ ," False sneered. Cleo and Stress made no move to step away. "You called in guards who are _hunting me_? From a kingdom who kidnaps little girls and boys from their beds? I think not, Xisuma." 

"You're a murderer," Zedaph said. "You deserve to be caught."

"The lot of them are murderers as well!" False said, waving her hand in the general direction of the castle, northwest. 

"Then you'll be happy together," Mumbo said.

False rolled her eyes. "And you'll be dead!"

"...what?" Grian asked from his position near Iskall. 

False sneered. "Act first, think second. They're not hunting me and putting a huge bounty on me for being a murderer; they're not sending a battalion of guards to every village simply because I'm a murderer. There are hundreds of murderers in this world. They're hunting me because I'm _running_ from them. But because of your stupid decision-making, Xisuma, I've decided to nobly sacrifice myself so that they don't try to kill all of you to get to me. Been there, done that - don't want to go through all of that again."

"What - no, they're just going to take you - " Xisuma spluttered. 

False drew her swords in one smooth motion, handing them to Cleo and Stress one at a time. "There is no way they can take me if I do not go willingly. I have _magic_." She drew her bow back and motioned for them to get out of the way of the nearest tree.

They did, though most of them, including Iskall, drew their swords. 

False sighed and released the arrow without even looking at her fifty-foot target, a small knothole in the center of the tree. She knew she'd hit it. 

She held out a hand for the swords, which Cleo and Stress passed her as she dropped her bow, turning to face the opposite direction of the tree. "I was trained by the best swordsman for five years."

False spun back around and flung her left sword at the tree.

And just as she had in the clearing, it spun head-over-tail and hit its target - the arrow that was in the knothole, still quivering, splitting it in half. 

False tossed her other blade in her hand. "They cannot catch me if I do not want them to." The shocked faces of the hermits rose in her vision as they glanced from the split arrow, to her, some of them gaping at her wildly. "Do I wish for this to happen? No. No, I don't. There was a price for the skills I have trained for over the years, and I would rather be a poor village girl with merely an aptitude for swords than an assassin." 

"Then why are you here?" Scar spoke up. 

"The Dragon Guards will kill you all to get to me," False said, flipping her other sword in her hand and catching it deftly. "And I cannot let them do that."

"Why?" Cub asked. 

False lowered her sword, and Stress placed an arm on her shoulder as she closed her eyes. "Because once upon a time, there was a little girl and her two best friends who craved adventure." She felt Cleo place an arm on her other shoulder. "And once upon a time, that little girl was stolen away to a castle where they were lined up like pigs at a market to be tested on. And one out of the sixty people succeeded in the tests - and her name was False." False's eyes shot open to see the gaping looks of the people she'd once called her friends. "And she made a deal for the rest of the girls to go home. They did. They were sent back home, one by one, with no memories - all except the little girl they called False."

"How do you know this?" Doc asked guardedly. 

False ignored him. "False grew up. And the people in the kingdom threatened to kill her friends unless she killed the people she was asked to. And day by day, they forgot what village she came from, what friends she had. They started to ask her to do other things - kill a child, or ten would die. She didn't and they slaughtered nearly a dozen people. So the next time she was asked to, she did." False flipped the sword in her hand once more, concentrating on that so that she wouldn't have to look at any of the hermits. "But then they took the boys from the villages. And once again, only one of them succeeded. They sent the rest home. His name was Kian, and he was fourteen to False's twelve.

"She waited, you know. Waited to be rescued. It never came. And that little girl you all knew as a child died the moment she turned sixteen, the moment she was forced to walk down the aisle in a white dress to a man whom she hated. That little girl was already dying the moment she killed her first person, and finally did the day she married Kian _for the good of the kingdom_. All of this, so you could live. Just to place yourself back in danger by calling the same people who hurt her for years."

There was silence in the courtyard as people stared at False. Deathly silence. 

"And you know about this, how...?" Doc asked again.

"Oh, I knew False," False said, grinning maliciously. "Just as well as I know myself. I used to know her. She changed, and she died. The little girl with big dreams and high hopes died, and I was reborn. Sinner Symmetry, the Queen of Hearts and Body Parts."

"You are False, aren't you?" Grian asked quietly.

"Not anymore," False said primly. "Perhaps a long time ago. But like I said - False died. I'm here, now. I'm not False - I'm not that weak child who refused to kill people and caused hundreds of others to die. I'm a murderer, False was a child. I'm the girl who took False's place the moment she stopped below that rose-red archway. I'm the girl that said the vows the moment False died. I'm the girl who ran away from the castle when they forgot about you, and I'm the girl who has to go back because of your stupid decision-making, _Xisuma_."

"...you're the evolved version of False?" Scar clarified.

False laughed. " _Devolved_ , maybe. False was a good person."

"So are you," Stress said simply, elbowing her. "No matter what you say, you will _always_ be a good person, in my eyes. No matter what you do."

"I think you're going blind," False responded quietly. "I came back to Hermitville because it was the only place I could go, but after seeing you...I couldn't ruin your lives. So I lived in the woods for two years while they chased me - the Southern Woods. They would never look there - it's filled with dangers that I don't even know the extend of." 

"I don't care that you killed people," Cleo started. 

" _I_ do," Doc interrupted. Cleo threw him a look, a glint in her eyes that made even _False_ want to take a step backward. Doc certainly did. 

"I don't care," Cleo said. "As long as you had reason to. Were they bad people?"

"Some of them," False admitted. "Others died so that hundreds more could live. I - False...learned that lesson the hard way. Kill one so a hundred can walk free. Kill one so that fifty could walk free. Kill one so twenty can walk free. Kill one so a dozen can walk free." She laughed harshly. "The numbers kept going down until it was _kill one so that two can walk free_. And those were only the villagers. There were hundreds more that I killed simply because they tried to kill me on the battlefield."

"Battlefield?" Grian asked. "Like a war?"

"We are at war," False said quietly. "Whether you like it or not, there is a kingdom over the mountain range that fights for our freedom, so that the taxes are not so heavy, so that they could overthrow the king that sits upon the throne."

"I didn't know that," Xisuma stated.

"They didn't want to spark a rebellion," False admitted. "And we're on the wrong side. I _want_ to go over to the Northern Kingdom and announce my allegiance - I can't anymore. Because my...because Kian and I are known for our bloodthirstiness, he much more so. They would kill me on sight." She sighed miserably. "So when I finally left, two years ago, they'd forgotten about you guys, and I was free." She met Xisuma's eyes. "Not anymore." 

"I'm...sorry," Xisuma admitted. "I'm sorry, False, for bringing them here."

False took a deep breath. It took all of her to not correct the village leader, to not scream at him to call her by her assassin name, not the name that was given to the innocent child at birth. "As I said," she said amicably. "The past catches up to all of us, eventually. I will try to reason with the Dragon Guards, but let it be known that some of you will probably be taken alongside of me, just so I can listen." She jerked her fingers at Stress and Cleo on either side of her. "Especially those two. They've already had some testing done on them - what's a bit more?"

Stress looked like she was going to cry, biting her lip. Cleo tried to stand a bit taller, but fear was in the orange-haired girl's eyes. 

"Will they become like you?" Grian asked. 

False raised an eyebrow at him. "A murderer?"

Grian stuttered. "No," he finally said. "People who have lost themselves."

"I haven't lost myself," False said angrily. "I'm more _me_ than I've ever been."

"By throwing your innocent side away?" Cleo demanded, and then snorted. "False is still in there somehow, managing your decisions and thoughts. Otherwise, you would never have saved us. False is part of you - you've just changed. And think about it, False - " She gestured at all the hermits around them. "We've _all_ changed. Change isn't a bad thing."

"That's the thing," False said quietly. "You changed because you were given the opportunity. I changed because I was forced to. There's a difference between you and me."

"I don't care," Stress said softly. "You're still my friend, even after all these years."

"I don't deserve to be your friend," False said. "Remember? I've mur - "

"Shut up," Stress said sharply. "Shut up, False. I don't give a single _shit_ that you're a murderer. You were forced to be. And you did it all for us. You could've run away from that castle and the rest of us would've died. But you didn't. Because you cared more about your friends than your own life. _That_ is the False I know. And right now, I'm seeing her again - when you could just run away into the forest, and not have to go back to the castle - but instead you stay and make sure we're safe. What does that say about you?"

False stared at the teary-eyed brown-haired girl. She had no words. 

Stress grasped her hands. "It means that you're still the same person I've always known," she said quietly. "Just because you've grown up doesn't make you the name that you were given. You are _not_ Sinner Symmetry - you are False. And. You. Are. My. _Friend_."


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Sorry I haven't posted in about...idk how long it's been. 5 days?? More??? Quarantine has made me lose track of time. I've been having issues with school *cough* Spanish *cough* and I'm also addicted to Minecraft so I haven't had time to upload.  
> Just kidding. I had a writer's block.

For the first time in eleven years, False gazed into her childhood home, which she'd shared with Stress when she was younger. 

"I, ah," Stress started from the doorway behind her. "I...moved out, you know. But I kept the house, and I come back here every week to clean it..." She trailed off and scratched her head. "I guess it's yours now."

False didn't answer as her eyes went to the many paintings on the wall that she'd created, the childish things almost making her smile.

Almost. 

There were polaroid pictures of the three girls as children, chasing butterflies at the edge of the forest - there were pictures of False fighting Iskall with sticks, pictures of her laughing on the ground, her arms full of redstone while Mumbo looked in bushes for it -

So many childhood memories.

Stress stepped up by her side, her left hand coming out to touch one of the pictures tenderly - a picture of all of the hermits, squished into one frame, laughing - minus False, of course. It looked like it'd been taken only a few years prior.

"That was your sixteenth birthday," Stress said softly. "When you would've become an adult in Hermitville. We got together...and we celebrated for you. Something I doubt you got to do."

False swallowed. "No," she said quietly, reaching out and tracing the picture. Suddenly, she could see the sadness that lingered in everyone's eyes - sadness that she hadn't been there to celebrate it. "That night I became Sinner. That's the night that I had the misfortune of marrying Kian. I haven't celebrated a birthday in ten years. I tried, when I turned ten. Didn't work out so well."

Stress snorted. "Some growing up party," she said, anger remaining in her voice. 

False sighed as she tumbled onto her single bed, glad that she hadn't chosen a small bed like Stress had when she was younger. It still fit her, if she curled her legs up right. Her hand went to the small braid hidden by the rest of her half-up hair, and she undid the braid swiftly, tugging away the tiny strip of white and red striped fabric, tossing it to Stress, who caught it in midair. 

"Is that - "

"Yes," False said. "It's the only thing left."

Stress stared at the miniature scrap. "I burned mine, you know," she said softly. "I burned the clothes I returned in. Don't you want to get rid of yours?"

False shook her head as she rolled over to stare up at the ceiling. "It was the only thing that reminded me of my past life. I had to keep some essence of False...of myself. Just to remain sane." She gave a low, quiet laugh. "Didn't turn out that well." 

Stress sniffed. "You're not insane." She hesitated. "Mentally unstable, maybe." The edge of a tease laced her voice, hesitant, prodding - and False let it on. 

She snorted. "You went into the woods, _twice_ , looking for me, and died the first time, and you came back in _without a weapon_ the second time. You're the one mentally unstable, not me."

"I only went looking in the woods because you were in the woods yourself," Stress replied. "Like...a squirrel."

False's jaw dropped. "You could've picked _any_ animal - hell, I would've taken a giant spider - and you picked a _squirrel_?"

"Yeah," Stress said defensively. "What's wrong with squirrels?" 

"They are _horrible_ scavengers," False all but screamed. "Worse than raccoons, because raccoons are somewhat intelligent."

Stress sniffed. "You're right," she said. "I shouldn't compare you to a squirrel. That's an insult to a squirrel. What about - "

She yelped as False grabbed her and tugged her onto the bed, the brown-haired girl collapsing into shrieks and giggles as False tickled her.

The door burst open. 

False looked up as Stress rolled away, subsiding into tiny snorts, her face red. 

"What the hell is going on in here?" Doc demanded, his hand on his sword, as he stared at False. 

"She was comparing me to squirrels," False said coolly.

"Still an insult to squirrels," Stress called out, and False whipped her head around to look at her childhood friend, who rolled her eyes at her dramatics. 

"You don't trust me, do you?" False said, tilting her head as Doc growled under his breath.

"Not in the slightest," Doc said without hesitation. "Should I?" 

"No," False said after a moment, and held up a hand when Doc reached for his sword. " _Not_ because I'm going to betray you. Because you shouldn't trust anyone until they have proven themselves, no matter what they say - no matter who I am, or what _I_ say. _I_ know who I am, and half of Hermitville probably believes me. I do not blame you, Doc, for not trusting others easily. In some ways, you will rise up, and in others, you will fall. I fell hard the first time - and I never fell again."

"Someone betrayed you," Doc said, his eyes narrowing, but False was glad to see his hand move away from his sword as she nodded. 

"Yes," False admitted, feeling uncomfortable about revealing more of her lost past, but knowing she had to do so, so that people would trust her. "I am...not particularly liked in the North."

"Just like squirrels, I'm guessing," Stress snickered, and False fake slapped her, not even going close to hitting her friend, who fell over on the bed, holding her cheek and moaning in pain.

"Anyway," she said with a sigh. "There was this girl. Thirteen or fourteen. Kian told me to kill her, or her family would die. I told her to run, and that I would save her family. She hated me, of course - I was the Queen of Hearts to her, the worst killer in the entire world, besides my....besides Kian, of course." If Doc noticed the break in her voice, he didn't show it, not even pity. "So she wanted to see me get in trouble, and she went to Kian and told him my _master plan_ if he would spare her." Her voice shook as she spoke her next words. "He killed her anyway. Her, her brother, her mother, her father...they all died. And then he shot an arrow through my collarbone, here." False brought up a hand to shift her cloak over, pulling her leather armor down to reveal the scar that still adorned her shoulder. "It took me weeks to heal - months to use a sword properly again."

"But you have water magic!" Stress said. "If you can heal me from death, you can heal yourself from an arrow."

False gave Stress a tired look. "I was fourteen, Stress," she said quietly. "I hadn't even been handed over to Kian yet. We all knew I had magic - but it never appeared until nearly eight months ago, when I saved Zedaph from drowning in the river."

"That was you?" Doc asked. 

"It was more so my magic," False corrected. "I - Sin just happened to be in the right place at the right time."

"And who are you?" Doc prodded. "False...or Sinner?"

False stared him directly in the eyes. "I do not know," she admitted. "On one hand...there is the friend you all used to know, who joked with her friends and wanted the world to be a better place...and then there is the girl who was born a cold-blooded killer, who can use magic, who killed hundreds of people under the orders of more cold-blooded killers."

Stress placed a hand on False's lap, where her hands lay. "People change, False," she said grimly. "You changed, I changed - none of us are the children we used to be. Do not expect to be the innocent carefree girl who chased Iskall in the woods with diorite or who stole Joe's books from under his nose - you are not. And I am not the girl who built ice castles in the winter without care - I have duties, now. I have a job. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy the winter, and you can't have jokes. We are not children, we have grown up. You more than all of us. But that does not change who you are inside of you, killer or not. None of this - none of what happened is your fault. You cannot change the past, only the future - I don't care what you did for a living for eleven years, because you're alive - which is more than what I can say for what the rest of us thought in this past decade."

* * *

**_Two weeks later_ **

False sat at the table with Stress and Cleo, playing a card game they'd taught her. She was terrible when it came to strategies, but great when it came to faking. 

She was great at faking things. She'd been doing it for eleven years.

Hermitville moved around as normal - though there were a few more weapons strapped to bodies and a few more wary looks towards their neighbors than usual. Over in the corner, Iskall was attempting to teach Joe how to use a bow, while the man insisted that he was better at diplomatic negations. 

Cleo snorted when she heard those words. "Idiot," she mumbled fondly, staring at her friend as he missed the entire target. 

Stress huffed as False pulled a king of spades and placed it down on the top of the deck. " _What_? You said you didn't have anything higher than a jack of clubs!"

False smiled widely. "And you believed me?"

Stress sputtered. "You _lied_?" 

Cleo shrugged. "You're too gullible, Stress. You keep falling for her tricks."

False laughed as the brown-haired girl gaped and stuttered even more. "Just like _squirrels_. They fall for the same damn trap every time."

"What an insult," Stress muttered, throwing her card down on the table. "Being compared to an ugly rodent thing."

"I agree," Cleo said amicably. "A cute little fluffy beast with a nasty interior. Describes you perfectly, Stress."

She high-fived False as Stress's jaw dropped and she struggled to come up with a comeback, while False grappled to contain a howl of laughter at the plight of her friend. 

Over under the tree, Joe missed his shot again. And False couldn't help but notice out of the corner of her eyes the grip of his hand, the angle of his bow, the awkwardness with how he'd drawn the arrow back. 

"Your arrow keeps swerving," Iskall said, but he scratched his head as he fixed Joe's position once more - he had no idea why. 

"False?" False shook her head and found Cleo snapping her fingers inches from her face. "You good?"

"...yeah," False said finally. "...something about Joe is bothering me."

"You mean besides the fact that he can't shoot?" Cleo said, raising an eyebrow. 

"It's not that," False said distractedly, all three girls turning to look at Joe again. "It's the way he stands, the way his hand grips the bow limb...it's _off_."

Cleo sighed. "He's been practicing with Iskall for ages. Never gets any better, for some reason."

False remembered watching Joe shoot with Iskall, but she never thought anything of it - people were constantly being trained in Hermitville. Grian had tried to learn redstone - still failed. Xisuma was attempting to learn how to create statues under the watchful eye of Cleo, but he didn't have her personal pizzaz the ginger-haired girl seemed to have. 

And Joe wrote and read all the time, other than shooting arrows at targets with Iskall, and he switched hands constantly when they cramped - 

False stood up suddenly, nearly upending the table. "I know what's wrong," she whispered. 

"What?" Stress asked, confused. 

"Something's wrong with Joe?" Cleo said at the same time, her voice reaching a higher pitch as she too stood up.

"No," False said, calming Cleo down. "Something isn't wrong with _him_ , but it's what he's doing that's wrong. And it's bothering me." She walked over to Joe and Iskall, the latter eyeing her warily but making no move towards the sword that lay at the foot of the tree, twinkling in the sun. 

"Hello, False," Joe said agreeably.

"Hello, Joe," she responded. 

"Not to be rude or anything," Iskall interrupted. "But why, exactly, are you intruding upon this lesson?"

"You're having trouble," False said, crossing her arms. "And it's not your fault."

"Actually, False," Joe said. " _I'm_ having trouble, not Iskall. Though, one could say that a persons' identity reflects those around them...it is my fault, not Iskall's."

False reached over and tugged Joe's hand from the bow, and then gave it back to him.

He took it with his right hand. 

"You're left-handed, Joe," False whispered, handing him another arrow and grabbing his right arm as he moved to hand it over to his left.

"Oh," Iskall murmered behind her. 

Joe stared at her. "I'm ambidextrous." 

"No," False said. "You're ambidextrous when it comes to writing. You start out with your left hand, and then you use your right when your left one cramps up. But you use your left first. _I'm_ ambidextrous. Necessity called for it."

Joe stared at her. "Are you stalking me?"

False held out the arrow. "Try it." She didn't answer the question the hermit had directed at her.

Joe blinked at her, and took the arrow in his left hand. He drew it back far easier than he had when he'd held the bow with his left hand and drawn the arrow back with his weaker hand.

And this time, the arrow hit the target. Not the direct center, but it was better than normal.

"How did you even know I was left-handed?" Joe demanded as Iskall stared at the quivering arrow embedded in the target.

"I'm good at two things," False admitted quietly. "Noticing things...and killing. Both are essential for a warrior."

"'Know your enemy and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster'," Joe quoted, nodding slightly. "Sun Tzu." 

"Of course you would remember random quotes from a book," Iskall muttered. 

Joe looked scandalized. "It's not a _random book_ ," he said. "It's _The Art of War_ . Only the most famous book written in _history_."

"I've never heard of it," the one-eyed hermit argued. "Can't be that famous."

"I have," False said. "But I've got to say - most boring book in existence as well. How does one come by that many fancy words?"

Iskall smirked. "Two to one, Joe." 

Joe crossed his arms, leaning on his bow. "'So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak.' Your numbers may be strong, but my words have more eyes (or 'i's') than you do."

Iskall's mouth dropped open. "Did you just poke fun at my missing eye?" he asked dangerously.

"He's going to break your legs!" Cleo called out to Joe, a broad smile across her face. 

False was about to say something else, but something was wrong.

Something wasn't right in the air.

So she closed her eyes and listened.

The normal sounds - birds chirping, people's footsteps on the ground, grass rustling in the barely-there breeze, Iskall and Joe arguing loudly, but she tuned it out - _there_. 

The clattering of wagon wheels, something that the hermits only used during fall, when they sent out their crops.

False opened her eyes and stared at the entrance of Hermitville, where a group of soldiers came into view slowly - ever so slowly. 

"They're here," she whispered, dread coiling in her stomach as Iskall and Joe stopped arguing and looked at her. At the table, Stress and Cleo stood up slowly, fear on their faces - they were afraid they were going to be taken.

And they had every right to be. 


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Gore & swearing. It should not be read for those who get nauseous at descriptions of blood and gore.

The hermits were all gathered at the gates, False perched on the top of the wall, ready to leap down if the Dragon Guards in their red and black spiked armor attacked. 

Xisuma looked nervous, and False felt bad for him - he'd apologized many times to her over the past two weeks - and he'd made a mistake and had admitted it. 

And now she had to pay for it.

Then again, she'd known she'd have to go back to the castle eventually. They'd catch her someday. She was only glad she got to spend a few days with Fal - with her childhood friends. 

She resisted breaking into shudders when Kian stepped down from his horse, his sword in hand as he eyed the collection of hermits dangerously. 

She hated him.

She  _ really  _ despised him. 

"I hear you've spotted my dear little Sinner," he purred, and False saw the light that entered Cleo's eyes as she realized who this was. "Where is she?"

Xisuma coughed. "It was a false alarm." 

False was barely able to see Kian move, until he paused with his sword nicking Xisuma's neck. " _ Liar _ ." He looked beyond the hermits expectantly, as if he expected False to be hiding behind a tree. "I can smell her fear of me."

A ripple of unease ran through the hermits at his words. 

"You can't  _ smell  _ fear," Scar said nervously. 

"And I suppose you know everything?" Kian said lightly. He turned to Stress, tilting his head as the brown-haired girl averted her eyes. "You  _ reek  _ of a magical signature that isn't your own. Where is she?"

Silence.

"Fine," Kian said with a sigh. "I'll just kill you all, then - "

"No!" Cleo said shrilly, and Stress nodded her head adamantly. "It was a mistake, nothing more. You can't just  _ kill  _ us for a mistake." 

Kian took his sword away from Xisuma's neck and turned to the ginger-haired girl, who swallowed and tried to look brave as she stepped in front of Stress, attempting to shield the brown-haired girl from anything that might come their way. "Have you ever been to the castle,  _ girl _ ? One mistake can cost you your life." Cleo averted her eyes and didn't respond, fear flashing through her eyes. 

Kian narrowed his eyes - and then they widened with realization. False felt a sinking sensation in her stomach. "You have been to the castle, haven't you?" he said softly. "Of course. Where else would my  _ dearest  _ Sinner go than her childhood home? You were one of the sixty girls that were taken." He sneered as he gave her a once-over. "I don't see why Sinner sacrificed her sanity for you, or anyone else." 

"Her name is  _ False _ ," Stress said fiercely. "Not  _ Sin _ , not Sinner, and not anything else."

Kian's eyes flashed furiously, and he brought up his sword.

The hermits drew their weapons.

"STOP!"

False rolled off the wall and landed in a roll in front of her childhood friends, her swords out. 

Kian smirked at her. "Typical. You should learn to be less predictable,  _ Sinner _ ." 

"Oh, yeah?" False snarled. "You should learn to leave me the fuck alone,  _ Kian _ ." 

Kian sighed. "You will become the next queen of the South, whether you like it or not,  _ Sin _ ," he said. "It is your duty."

False snorted, ignoring the noises of surprise that arose behind her. "It's not my damn problem that you lost your princess when she was born," she said. "I do not want to rule the kingdom."

"Why?" Kian asked softly. "If you think there are so many problems, you could fix them.  _ We  _ could fix them - together." He lowered his sword and held out his free hand, the archers behind him lowering their bows as well. 

"And that's the problem," False snarled. "I do not want to rule a kingdom with you by my side. I figured out your master plan, and I want no part in it. The kingdom may accept me, but they will never accept you.  _ I  _ don't accept you. You will murder me in my sleep - you will make sure you are the only ruling power in the world."

Kian smirked. "You're smarter than you look," he mused. "But it matters not. You're coming with me, Sinner. And one day, you will rule the kingdom. And then you will die, you  _ useless fucking girl _ , and I will lead this kingdom to victory."

False tightened her grip on her swords, barely holding herself back from leaping at the bastard. 

"They told me you would have magic," he said, stepping closer. "But you never did. Our  _ children  _ were supposed to have magic." He stared over False's shoulder at the people who stood behind her. "Instead, you return to this backward town of people who are just as useless as you."

"Oh, fuck off," Cleo said, disgust palpable in her tone. "We may not be royalty, but at least we do not have blood on our hands."

"And do you include my darling Sinner in that statement?" Kian asked calmly, and then turned to False. "I love you, you know."

False froze for a second. "Bullshit," she spat.

And then she leaped at him, and he met her swords with his own. 

* * *

Iskall watched the battle with wide eyes, barely following the movements False and Kian made, their offensive and defensive movements switching within half a second.  _ She was right _ , he thought.  _ If she really wanted, she could take us all out with little trouble _ . 

False and Kian paused for five seconds, their swords locked, as they struggled for the upper hand, a tiny cut on False's face as she snarled at the man who was her husband.

Iskall was shocked by the sheer bloodthirstiness that shone on False's face - though, he had to admit, if he'd been forced to marry someone he obviously hated he wouldn't be that happy either. He also wouldn't be too happy if he'd been forced to murder people for nine years.

Yeah, he understood why she had that look on her face, even if he didn't like it. 

And he and the rest of the hermits were helpless to watch as False fought Kian, probably for her life, their swords flashing, blood droplets from unknown wounds flying out from the force of their movements - 

And he could do nothing. 

They all could do nothing. 

False and Kian paused for a second, both panting. False had her swords crossed, Kian pressing down on her shorter form. 

"You've gotten better," he said with a small snarl.

"You're just sloppy," False said, snarling right back.

And they were at it again. 

A dance so graceful that it could've been called art - a deadly art. Around and around and around, swords clashing, metal against metal the only thing that rang in the pure silence of the village air. 

Iskall was both horrified and intrigued by False's skills when it came to swords. 

They broke away from each other, circling, and Kian raised a hand up to wipe away a bit of blood from the minuscule scratch that had shorn off a bit of his right elbow. 

There was no smugness in False's eyes - no sense of victory. There was just wrath and pain and fear and  _ loss _ . 

Iskall had to look away. 

And because he looked away, he heard the creak of two bowstrings in the silence as False and Kian stared each other down, her back to Iskall. 

And in the silence, he heard the whistling of arrows. 

" _ False _ !" he shouted. 

False heard them too.

And she turned towards him, because the arrows were not aimed at her - no, not at her, but at  _ him,  _ him and Xisuma, whose face was contorted in horror as an arrow black as night sped towards his chest.

And Iskall wasn't fast enough to move.

Xisuma wasn't fast enough to move.

Stress's shriek filled the air. 

False  _ moved _ .

She ran, dropping her swords so they clattered to the dusty floor, and  _ ran _ towards him and Xisuma, her hands outstretched, reaching - 

And she caught them.

Inches from his face, an arrow lay, midair, with False's hand around its shaft. And mirrored to him, Xisuma's arrow lay, caught by her as well.

A breath of relief came from him. 

False smiled sadly. 

And then Kian stabbed her through the back. 

This time it was Cleo who screamed, mirroring Stress's shrieked cry, and the yell of hermits as False dropped the arrows and fell to her knees, blood leaking from her mouth, as Kian withdrew the sword from her back.

And then she fell to the ground.

Iskall couldn't tell if she was breathing. 

He could only stare in horror as her eyes closed, her golden hair stained with her own blood, which leaked from her stomach and her back, pooling on the dirty ground like an oil stain. 

Kian stared at the prone body of his wife and shrugged. "She'll heal." 

The hermits would've moved, collectively, to attack him - but the group of archers behind him all drew their arrows. 

And all of them froze, Stress with tears leaking down her face, Cleo with her hand gripped on her dagger firmly, anger and hatred in her eyes as she looked first at False, then to Kian - over and over and over again. 

Iskall did not move, less one of the archers spook and fire an arrow and kill one of them. 

Nobody moved. 

"Let me be very clear, here," Kian said with a small smirk as he wiped the blood off his sword. "If any of you move to attack me, or any of my guards, you die. You will let me walk away with Sinner, and you will never come after me for revenge. Am I understood?"

"Who the hell stabs someone in the back?" Cleo said angrily, her teeth clenched together. 

"Someone who does not have his friends as his weakness," Kian said joylessly. "As for you - " He pointed at Cleo. " - you're coming with me as well, Clemintine Evalangine." 

"...what?" Cleo whispered, shock on her face.

"No way!" Joe said furiously. 

Kian shrugged. "Then I'll kill you all." He was deadly serious.

Iskall knew it. Everyone knew it. But to let Cleo  _ and  _ False be taken...again? He clenched his fist on his sword, his hand turning nearly white from the strain he was enforcing on it. 

Cleo held up a hand, her eyes wide and terrified. "Wait. No. I'll go." She sounded scared...and defeated, a tone that Cleo rarely showed. "I don't want any of you to die on behalf of me."

"It's no bother," Wels snarled. "This isn't happening again."

Cleo swiped a hand through the air. "It is, and it  _ will _ ." She raised her voice. "None of you are dying for me today. Not now, not ever." She pushed through the remaining hermits. "I will not allow your deaths to remain on my shoulders." 

When Cleo was steps from Kian, who had a malicious smirk on his face, Stress shoved through the crowd.

"Then I'm coming with you." 

Cleo spun, horror on her face as her brown-haired friend stood before her, a sad smile on her face, no weapon in hand. "What? No!"

Kian's smirk, if anything, grew wider. "Ah. The girl who died and came back to life. You're welcome in the castle anytime." 

Stress was shaking as she stepped forward, her eyes refusing to go to False's body at Kian's feet.

"Stress, no," Iskall whispered.

Stress looked over her shoulder to look at him, her big brown eyes full of bitter tears. "You know what False said, Iskall.  _ The past always catches up with you _ ." 

And Iskall was helpless to do anything as Kian scooped up False's limp body, blood dripping onto his dreadful black armor. He was helpless to do anything but watch as Stress and Cleo were led away, were put in a cart with bars, as horses and armor-clad Dragon Guards surrounded them.

And all he could do was watch as the three girls who were taken eleven years ago were taken again. 


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Swearing

False groaned and rolled over on a soft mattress, muttering and sinking deeper into its silkiness as she drifted back slowly into her dream. It had been a wonderful one - where she'd fallen in love with a faceless man, and Cleo and Stress had been her bridesmaids...if only she could open her eyes and see the man she'd been in love with - 

False sat up in bed with a sharp gasp as the door creaked open, and she reached for the weapons that usually sat strapped to either her back or her side - but nothing was there. 

In fact, her normal comforting armor wasn't there. 

False swung her legs out of bed, her eyes rising to come face-to-face to a robed woman dressed in red and grey, her head lowered in a docile position. 

Of course.

She was in the Southern castle. 

"Good morning, my lady," the servant said from her bowed position. "His lordship has sent me to dress you this morning." 

False wrinkled her nose. "I can dress my own damn self." She felt slightly bad when the servant woman winced at her foul language - but then again, she was trapped in the castle, so she didn't give a shit about the occupants.

Okay, that was a lie. But most of them were Northern captives. 

And they were also the only Northerns who slightly knew her for being a person other than the Queen of Hearts and Body Parts. They saw what she went through. 

False's hand went to her stomach, where a small ridge lay.

The only remaining evidence that Kian had stabbed her. She knew that if she were to lift up her nightgown it would look years old, and smaller than it had originally been.

Kian had told her that healers came whenever she got  _ injured _ \- tortured - but it had been her water magic the entire time, lying dormant beneath her skin. 

He had been waiting for the rest of her magic to appear - and it never had. 

_ Useless, my ass _ . Healing magic was wonderful. It was the only reason why False was still alive. 

"My lady," the servant woman murmured, interrupting False's thoughts. The red-haired girl walked over to False's wardrobe and opened it, revealing a set of armor that made False cringe.

It was a warrior dress - matching to Kian's, although he had a tunic and not a dress, with armor strapped to the front. 

She swallowed and walked over to the wardrobe, reaching out and touching the soft fabric and the cool metal. It wasn't even dusty from her two years of being gone - the same damn garb that she'd worn for every single battle she'd fought in against the Northern army. The same one in which she'd slaughtered hundreds - mothers, women, warrior, children - people who didn't deserve it, all to save a hundred more. 

"I made sure to keep it clean."

False grabbed the sword inside the wardrobe, trying not to think about the deeds the sword had done, and who had wielded it. A different person. A different version of her. 

The servant woman squeaked and curtsied, running out of the room as fast as possible. False narrowed her eyes as Kian stepped aside, a nasty smirk on his less-than-ideal face. 

"What are you doing here?" she spat.

Kian laughed. "Am I not allowed to visit my wife?" he said. 

"Lawful wife, perhaps," False snarled, pretending to look around. "Don't see one in here."

Kian rolled his eyes. "Dramatic as I remember," he said disdainfully. "Besides,  _ wife _ , your purpose will be served."

"I will never do anything for you again," False said, lifting her chin certainly.

"Oh, really?" Kian sneered. "You  _ will _ , Sinner, and you will do it gladly."

"Never," False snarled. 

"Or a certain brown-haired girl will die a painful death," Kian continued, evil joy evident on his face. 

False blinked at him as horror flooded through her body. She opened and closed her mouth before saying in a strangled whisper, "You have Stress?"

Kian leaned against the nearest wall. "Did you know that that ginger-haired girl, the girl whom the kingdom let go so many years ago, is actually Clementine Evalangine?" He snorted. "Your village may be full of orphans,  _ Sinner _ , but that girl is the lost princess?"

False stared at the floor. "Yes," she whispered. "I know what Cleo is." 

* * *

Cleo wasn't feeling too hot. 

Seeing as she was freezing, of course, she wasn't feeling too hot.

She snorted quietly to herself.

"You just made up a pun in your head," Stress accused her. "Probably about the iciness of the floors. Do they not have fires?" She shivered, the chains that held her to the floor clanking in the small confinements of the jail. 

It'd taken them a week to journey here. A week of silence - a week of watching False slowly heal, her wound closing, her breath becoming less shallow over the hours - but she never woke up.

They had been separated, then, and Cleo wondered with unease if False was alive. She'd lost a lot of blood in the journey, even if her wound had finally closed up within the final forty-eight hours. 

The door crashed open. 

Cleo was on her feet instantly, the hands that were chained together - and thus to the ground - clenching into fists as she stared at a red-haired, green-eyed woman in a blood-red dress and carrying a small box in her hands.

Stress blinked at the woman from her position on the floor. "She looks like you," she murmured to Cleo. 

The woman's eyes filled with tears as she stared at Cleo. "My daughter," she sobbed.

"What?" Cleo choked, jolting backward. "Wait, no - no, this can't be real - who the hell are you?"

The woman tsked. "Language, my dear."

Stress snorted. "Cleo has a valid - " 

The woman's face transformed from a kind old woman to one full of wrath. " _ Silence _ , girl. You are in the presence of royalty." 

"Don't speak to my friend like that!" Cleo said angrily. 

The older woman tsked again. "You need to get better friends, Clementine."

"Excuse me, my name is  _ Cleo _ ," Cleo said. "Not...Clementine." 

The red-haired woman rolled her eyes. "That's your farm name," she said, almost sounding disgusted. "As my daughter, and as the princess of the Southern Kingdom, you are Clementine Evalangine."

Cleo's mouth dropped open. Stress stared at her, her brown eyes wide. "What?" she said in a shocked voice. 

"Congrats," the woman - the queen - said. "You're a princess now. And you can come home."

"My home," Cleo snarled. "Is where I say it is. And it is most certainly not here."

Her mother snorted as she opened the box in her hands, revealing a golden tiara with small red rubies embedded in it. "You have a duty to your kingdom, Clementine."

"Stop  _ calling  _ me that," Cleo insisted. "You can't just waltz into my life after all these years of being alone without parental figures in my life and say that I'm a princess." 

"I can, and I will," the queen said, arching a perfect eyebrow. "You are the princess of the kingdom, and as such, you will act like one. You will be the successor when my husband and I fall, not that usurper Sinner."

"False will be happy about that," Stress muttered. 

"She's alive?" Cleo asked her mother.

The queen snorted. "Unfortunately, yes, that bitch is alive." She sighed. "If only she wasn't so damn stubborn. She's a good soldier, though. Too temperamental."

Cleo laughed coldly. "If you think  _ she's  _ temperamental, dearest  _ mother _ , then you haven't met me yet." 

The queen shrugged. "You'll learn, Clementine. Sinner sure did." She placed the box on the table by the door and left, slamming the barred door behind her. 

Cleo could only stare at the glistening golden crown that lay shining in the carved wooden box, in a nest of red silk as she sat down slowly next to Stress. 

"Well," Stress said after a moment. "Remember our childhood dreams? Lost princesses, faires...yours came true."

Cleo let a breath out between her teeth. "Yeah. With a side of  _ I'm probably going to get murdered _ . I didn't want to be a princess of  _ this  _ kingdom. I don't even like this kingdom." 

Stress nearly hit her in the face with her metal cuffs in an attempt to cover her mouth. "Oops. No, but seriously, you can't say things like that! It's illegal and very unpatriotic of you." Cleo saw, though, by the twist of her friend's mouth, Stress very much agreed with what Cleo was saying. 

So she laughed instead of backing down. "What are they going to do? Drag me to the castle? I'm the fucking crown princess of the Southern Kingdom." She wasn't happy about it either. 

"At least one day, you'll get to make the rules," Stress murmured helpfully. 

"That's the problem," Cleo said, lowering her voice as well. "False was supposed to be the next queen - she could've changed the rules. But she couldn't wait that long - I'm probably going to be forced into some damn arranged marriage as well."

"I call being your bridesmaid," Stress said lightheartedly. 

Cleo sighed. "You wouldn't be allowed to my wedding."

"I'll beat them up," Stress giggled fiercely. 

"Oh yeah," Cleo said, poking the brown-haired girl's shoulder. "Great idea. Get into a battle with Kian or whatever other damn warriors exist in this place." 

"How long would you reckon I last?" Stress said. "I say two seconds."

"I say half a second," Cleo joked. "Squirrels don't last that long." 

They both dissolved into silent laughter, even in the cold jail cell - laughing, together. Because who knew how long it would be before they were separated from each other like False had been from them so many years ago - and what if they never saw each other again?

Cleo enjoyed the moment as she brought her bound hands up to wipe the tears away from her eyes. It certainly wasn't going to last.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Blood & mild swearing

False hated how she knelt in front of Cleo's mother and father. She hated how she was forced to kneel in front of people she didn't respect. She didn't even fear _them_ \- only the power they could wield with their hands.

And although Cleo didn't know it, she had magic as well.

"Sinner," the queen intoned from her position on her throne, shifting in her red skirts. "You are no longer the sole heir to the throne."

False hid a secret smile as she bowed her head. 

"My daughter, Clementine Evalangine, has been found," the queen continued. "And if you wish to retain your dignity, you must fight her."

False raised her head to look over her shoulder as the doors to the throne room. 

It was Cleo - a clean, uncomfortable, armor-clad version of Cleo. The girl was good with a sword, but False knew that she had to learn, or she would fall. 

"I have to fight her?" False asked the queen incredulously. 

The king nodded. "Yes." 

"You want me to kill your daughter?" False asked. 

"We want her to preferably kill you," the queen said. "Insolent child." 

False turned and faced Cleo, who had her sword out, though it wasn't pointed at her. She drew her own swords.

They wanted her to fight her childhood friend in the throne room, where nobles whispered among the pillars, and Kian stood off to the side - did he know her relationship to her friend?

Cleo looked scared, but not of False as she tightened her grip on her sword. She was wearing armor much like False, with a blue dress and a metal breastplate on her chest. Her ginger hair was intertwined into a high bun, her princess crown tucked safely on her head. 

False closed the distance between her and Cleo in ten easy steps, until they stood close to each other, eye to eye. 

"Are you really going to fight me?" Cleo breathed out. 

False looked her friend in the eyes, and saw the secret fear in there - that she really was Sinner, that she really was going to murder Cleo, though she doubted that the queen, the king, or Kian would allow her to. 

"No," she said finally.

And then she threw her swords to the side, so they clattered to the ground, and she hugged Cleo tightly, the princess dropping her sword as well as she hugged False's shoulders. 

"I'm sorry," she murmured, ignoring the shouts of outrage that came from the queen and king and some of the nobles positioned around the room. "I'm sorry they brought you here, it's all my fault - "

Cleo drew back and gripped her shoulders, her brilliant green eyes flashing with fury. "Do _not_ blame yourself," she said. "You saved us once, ten and a half years ago. We thought you were _dead_ , False. Of course, you would come back to Hermitville. I'm sorry that we couldn't protect you, as friends should've."

False smiled at her, relief trickling through her body at Cleo's words. She released the princess's shoulders and stepped back. "I concede!" she shouted. "I concede."

Cleo blinked at her. 

False winked at her friend. "You'd make a far better ruler than I," she whispered. "I want you and I to stop the war one day - but if I sit upon the throne than the Northerners will never make peace."

"Why not?" Cleo demanded. "You'd make a great queen."

False shook her head sadly. "I'm a great assassin, Cleo," she said. "Not a great queen. I've killed their people. I do not have a good heart."

"It's good enough for me," Cleo said fiercely. "It's damn well good enough for me."

False couldn't say anything else as footsteps approached them from behind. She turned to come face to face with a furious-looking queen. 

Suddenly, False wished that she hadn't thrown her weapons to the ground - but she couldn't exactly reach for them without being suspicious, could she?

"Clementine," the queen said, ignoring False. "You understand that you are now the heir to the throne...as Sinner has stepped down?"

Cleo coughed. "...uh, yeah. Sure."

The queen smiled, but it wasn't warm in the slightest. "You have much to learn, then, my daughter, if you wish to be as good as I or your father." She glared at False. "You're already a better ruler than _this_ upstart."

False shrugged, not annoyed by the queen's words in the slightest. "Can't say you're wrong," she said, humming in agreement. It had been why she'd done it - she wanted to end this war, and she couldn't do it while on the throne. 

Cleo snorted, and then straightened when the queen glared at her. "I think I'm coming down with something," she deadpanned. 

False could've sworn the queen rolled her eyes. "Clementine - " Cleo bristled at the name. " - as the princess of the South, and as my biological daughter, you'll need to go through a few...tests to make sure you have the features key to becoming the queen."

False stiffened, as Cleo frowned uncertainly. Her friend didn't know it - but the _tests_ were experiments capable of giving those worthy magic. Like herself. Not that she was worthy of magic - it'd just popped up. It was harder for those who wanted to use magic for things other than doing good - their magic, like Kian's and Cleo's parents, was corrupted and _wrong_. 

"Actually," False intervened, barely stopping herself from leaping at the queen's throat. "Cleo - "

"You will address her as Princess Clementine," the queen snapped. "As you are no longer of nobility and just a soldier in this war." 

False resisted leaping at the queen's throat _again_. "Princess Clementine - " Cleo coughed, covering up nervous laughter, and False glared at her. " - has already gone through the beginning tests. She was one of the girls...who came here...willingly...eleven years ago."

The queen looked surprised. "I would've recognized her," she said, almost to herself. "That's impossible."

"No, uh, _mother_ ," Cleo said, shifting uncomfortably in her armor. "I dyed my hair that year using squid ink." She wrinkled her nose at the thought, and False kept her face straight so she wouldn't get in trouble for laughing at the princess. "It was black for the length of time I was here."

"And, of course, you don't remember?" the queen asked her daughter sharply. 

"No," Cleo was quick to respond. "It was black when I...left, and black when I came home."

False winced at her friend's choice of words. 

The queen backhanded Cleo across the face; not hard enough to knock her to the floor, but hard enough to turn Cleo's head to the side. Small trails of blood from the queen's fingernails burned across Cleo's face.

False gritted her teeth, helpless to do anything as she tried to ignore Kian's painful stare that was directed at her. She knew that he _wanted_ her to move, to do something - but that would end in pain for both her and Cleo, and Stress as well. 

Besides, this was only the beginning. 

It would get worse. So much worse. 

False clenched her fists and wished she could do something other than watch as Cleo cupped her face, retribution, and anger evident on her features. She wished she wasn't so useless. 

* * *

_**Two days later** _

False limped out of the laboratory, dressed only in a half-top and a pair of black pants, her hands wrapped around her stomach. Blood leaked from under her fingertips - blood from her carved-up stomach. She wanted to lean against the wall and faint, but she wasn't safe in the corridor.

She wasn't safe anywhere, but people could take advantage of her in the corridor - and that was something that wouldn't ever happen again.

False knew she looked terrible. Saw the looks the servants gave her - pitying looks, but they couldn't help her. Saw the laughter that twisted the noble's faces. She had bruises on her face and her arms, and there were cuts on her stomach from a knife, as well as small ones on her wrist from the cuffs that had held her down.

She gritted her teeth and used a bloody hand to hold herself up as the world faded for half a second. 

**Really? After only one session, Sinner?**

_My name is False_.

**Sure. You do you.**

False shook off the thoughts in her head, trying to ignore the two separate personalities that threatened to overwhelm her. She didn't know who she wanted to win - Sinner was the strong one, the one who could take the pain. False was the weaker one, yet the kinder one, the one who wanted to hang out with her friends and laugh, the one who wanted to drop her swords and never see blood again. False was her childhood - but Sinner was her future. 

"False?"

False blinked, and Stress came into view, the girl in a pink and white dress that suited her pretty well, her brown hair falling to her shoulders. "Stress?"

"You look terrible," the girl said, her eyes wide as she rushed closer, flanked by a pair of guards, who sneered at False's predicament. 

False coughed, wiping away the blood that came out mixed with the spit. "Thanks." 

Stress took False's hand and brought it over her shoulder, and False let out a sigh of relief as she slumped against the shorter girl, who didn't seem to care about the blood that was ruining her pretty dress.

"What are you doing?" one of the guards asked Stress sharply, who batted her eyes prettily. 

"I'm helping my friend not collapse in the hallway," Stress said curtly. "Wouldn't you do the same?"

The other guard snorted, his lips twisting into a sneer below his helmet. "She's not your friend, prisoner. She's a dangerous assassin." 

Stress smiled. "Perhaps to you, _guard_ ," she said. "But False would never hurt me, not intentionally."

The guards trailed after them, their weapons and armor clanking as Stress walked down the halls, False directing her to her room.

Stress slammed the door behind them, and engaged the lock. They both ignored the shouting that started, alongside the pounding that shook the door - but False knew it was durable, as well as fireproof. She'd made sure of that because of Kian. 

Stress sat her carefully on the bed before sitting down herself. "I haven't seen you or Cleo after they released us from the jail," she said, crossing her legs and arranging her skirts, now stained in blood. "I...I just thought you would visit me, or something."

False reached over to place a hand on Stress's knee, but drew back when she realized her hand was covered in blood from her newly-revealed stomach, lined with deep gashes and gaping wounds. "They wouldn't let me, Stress. And I doubt they'd let Cleo, either."

Stress's eyes were on her stomach, though. "Are...are you okay?" she asked softly. 

False smiled sadly. "In a bit, maybe. Things like this heal, Stress. Things like this always heal for me." 

Stress sighed and tapped the top of False's hand. "How are we supposed to get out of here, False?" she asked desperately. "I thought this place would be awful, but it's lies wrapped in secrets - they look good, but they have horrible interiors."

False sighed as well. "Yeah," she said tiredly. "This place is like that. Cleo thought they would just torture us until we died, but the queen actually plans on having Cleo take over the throne one day."

Stress perked up. "And then she would set us free, right?" she asked hopefully.

False shook her head. "That's years in the future," she said softly. "And just as I became a different person here, Cleo would too. And you and I would probably not survive that long. Hell, I'm surprised I'm alive right now. I've lost my usefulness."

Stress leaned against False's shoulder. "We're going to survive this," she said fiercely. "We're going to get out of here - " she hesitated. " - we're going to go back to Hermitville, and we're going to go to the Northern kingdom, and Cleo is going to end this war between people."

False placed her bloody hand on Stress's. "We can only hope," she said softly. "We can only hope that we will see our friends sometime again. And not in eleven years."

Stress cracked a small smile. "Funny," she sniffed. "Really hilarious, False."

False grinned. "Too soon?" she teased.

Stress shook her head. "Not soon enough," she said finally. "At least you don't insist on me calling you Sinner anymore."

False shrugged loosely, pain flaring up in her stomach and causing her to wince. "You're stubborn. Cleo even more so than you. I gave up."

"Or maybe," Stress mumbled. "You are truly the girl I used to call one of my best friends."

False didn't respond. She didn't know what to say to that.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Swearing & gore

Before the kingdom split into two, there was one. The king and queen ruled from the castle in the Remoa Mountains, which split the continent in half. Some say that there was still a castle buried there, if you found the right way. 

Cleo stared at the dusty notebook in fascination. She was supposed to be studying the history of wars over the past hundred years from one of her elderly tutors who she hated, but this was far more interesting. She'd found it buried inside another grimy tomb. It seemed to be the original, for unlike the carefully copied books that she'd been forced to read, it was written in unruly handwriting. 

_There used to be phoenixes, who flew across the sky in many colors, some with mages on their back, the knights of the world, protecting others._

_That changed when corruption hit the land. The phoenixes died out in the South, and barely remain in the north - now, all that remains of the phoenixes in the Southern kingdom are unhatchable eggs, taken from their mothers much too soon._

_And before the corruption, magic was beautiful. Instead of blackness, instead of darkness, magic was magic - and the fire burned red, not black, and nature mages grew cherry blossom trees instead of twisted evil vines and sentient Venus flytraps. Before the corruption that the Southern Mages experimented on, magic was simply magic, and few had it._

Cleo paused, confused, but continued reading after a second.

_But humans were greedy, as humans tended to be. They were jealous, as is one of our fatal flaws. Those who did not bear both the blessing and curse of magic wished to have power, and with the help of the chaos mages, they managed to create corrupt magic - but magic nonetheless. People who were not gifted with magic suddenly had magic, and that meant that evil was created where evil should not exist._

Huh. So people were gifted with magic - generally good people, Cleo was guessing. 

_The Northerners were appalled by the behaviors of the Southerners. They tore the castle down, destroying the laboratory where children were being experimented on, forced to have dark magic that corrupted them to the very core, and made them evil._

_But that did not stop the Southerners. They built their own castle, and continued to take children from their homes and give them magic black as night. These children became the very things that were the nightmares in their stories - evil, twisted beings who wished only to kill. These children became corrupted, and there is no cure for corruption. These children wished to kill all that opposed their masters, and the numbers of the mages on the Northerner's side dwindled._

_The last remaining royals on the Northerners were killed when they were attacked, the queen having just given birth to a baby girl. They were slaughtered, all of them, then the carriage burned, merely bones of the king and queen remaining. The child's bones were never found, having been melted alive._

_Some say that magic has returned to those who dare fight in the South._

_The phoenixes will rise to those who oppose the oppressors._

_The phoenix riders will travel across the sky once more._

Cleo turned the rest of the pages in the notebook - nearly half of them, but they were all blank. Not even a touch of ink splattered across it. 

"Princess Clementine?"

Cleo panicked when she heard the voice of her tutor. She took the notebook and threw it into the fire, wincing as she did so.

_Stupid reactions_ , she chided herself as she watched the leather-bound book burn. She was still staring at the crackling pages when her fifty-something-year-old tutor rounded the corner. 

"Clementine, you're supposed to be studying," he said sharply. 

Cleo pointed at the open book on her lap - one she'd flipped open to a random page and hadn't looked at it since. 

"If you want to be a gracious and kind ruler like your mother - " he started.

Cleo snorted, her hand going up to her cheek, where a handprint-sized bruise was still fading. Her tutor didn't miss it. 

"Sometimes little girls need punishments," he said harshly. 

Cleo stood up, the book on her lap falling onto the library floor. "A good ruler resorts to violence last," she said sharply, lifting her chin. She was taller than her tutor by a few inches, and towered over him. "A good ruler resorts to violence only if need be. A good ruler talks before they react."

"None of which your parents have done," her tutor said with a smirk. "Therefore - "

"Therefore they are not good rulers," Cleo said quietly. "And I do not aspire to be any of them. I want to be a good ruler - not a cruel one. Not one that steals little girls away from their beds to test corrupted magic on them, and not one that forces women and men to kill people." 

She closed her eyes as a slap hits her face in a burst of pain, right in the same spot where her mother had - and she wondered how False had survived all these years, going through far worse than this. 

Cleo opened her eyes to stare her tutor down, willing herself to not cry - not now, not when she was trying to make a stand. "You do not scare me."

Oh, but he did. She just didn't let him know that. 

Cleo all but fled the library, exiting out the side entrance, leaving her quartet of guards behind - along with her tutor. She lifted her skirts and ran down random hallways in an attempt to get away from the prying eyes as tears begun to fall down her face. People stared at her, but she bowed her head and scurried on.

She was lost after around ten turns. Nobody, not even guards, was in the hallways - mostly old paintings and barely-lit candles, and the occasional servant in the distance. 

Cleo leaned against the wall and slid to the ground, bringing her knees to her chest as she sobbed.

She wished that Stress and False were here - that Joe was with her, that she was back in Hermitville, that none of this had happened. That False had never been taken away at a young age, only to return far later and with more sinister ideals. That Stress hadn't volunteered to go with them. That she wasn't a princess with a crown upon her head. 

At those thoughts, Cleo tore the stupid tiara off her head and threw it as hard as she could. It hit the painting on the other side of the room and clattered to the floor. 

Cleo was about to put her head down on her knees, but the painting stopped her. 

She stared at it. 

It was a painting of three women, grown up, hugging each other, a blonde-haired warrior standing in the back, an orange-haired girl with a jeweled flower crown, and a brown-haired girl with a crown entirely made of ice.

As if in a trance, Cleo stood up and walked to the other side of the hallway, reaching up a hand to touch the painted face of the ginger-haired girl, who looked like the kinder version of her mother. There was no plaque, nothing to read - nothing to tell her who these women were. 

Cleo hit the painting angrily - and then she paused as a small breeze hit her face. This deep in the castle, there shouldn't have been a breeze - there were no windows around, no light except the candles that flickered - _flickered_ \- in the nonexistent breeze. 

Her heart quickened, and Cleo tugged the painting open. Behind it, there was a passageway, lit up by candles that burned with white light - light that did not move when she waved a hand near it, or blew it. 

_Magic_. 

She followed the passageway, leaving her crown behind. 

* * *

False saw the knife at Stress's throat that the guards held, and saw the little girl, who couldn't be more than eleven, that Kian grasped by a hand, in front of her. Her husband held a handful of black flames - his magic that burned black, like his heart. 

The little wispy-blonde-haired girl stared at her with big eyes and trembling lips. 

"You expect me to kill her?" False said quietly. Far too quietly. Inside, she shook with silent anger. 

Kian nodded. "Or your friend will die." He gestured with his flame-filled hand at Stress, who had a pleading look on her face as she shook her head. "Choose, Sinner." 

False held the sword loosely in her hands, staring at the little girl in front of her, who had so much life in front of her - who would've had a future if not for the kingdom. "My name is False." But she lifted her sword higher, holding it in front of her - the same sword she'd used to murder countless others. She could almost picture the blood running down the perfectly clean blade. 

Sinner would've done it. 

False lifted her sword higher, and the little girl screamed in terror, closing her big golden eyes.

* * *

Cleo stood in a room filled with light - floating, magical light, and at the pillow that lay on the dais in front of her. It was a stone room, one filled with cobwebs, and smelled old.

And on the pillow on the dais lay three small eggs, ones that could've been mistaken for bird eggs had they not had a gentle glow about them, as if they burned from within. 

One of them was a brilliant green, and smelled like earth, root-like brown tendrils on the surface.

One of them was an icy blue, as if it'd been frozen over - but the gentle pulse of the egg's life assured Cleo that was merely the surface of the egg. 

The last one was a dark night blue, with white speckles of light adorning the surface. That one seemed to glow the brightest, the tiny figure stirring within.

Transfixed, Cleo took a step further. 

* * *

**Do it.**

_I will not kill an innocent child_.

**You have done it before. And if you do not, then Stress will die. I doubt you want our childhood friend to die?**

_I will not kill another person who does not deserve to die_.

**People die like leaves fall. It is natural in this world for the young to die, occasionally. You do not know this girl. We know Stress.**

_She would never forgive me_.

**And you would never forgive yourself if you let our friend die.**

_I can't._

**You can. And you will.**

False closed her eyes and lifted the sword higher, in line with the child's neck. She could almost see Kian smile wider. 

"NO!"

False opened her eyes and turned to Stress, who was shaking her head frantically at her. "If you do this," her friend gasped, while the guard who held her attempted to shut her up. "Then you will never forgive yourself."

False didn't realize she had tears pouring down her face until she tasted the saltiness in her mouth. "I will never be forgiven anyway," she forced out.

* * *

Closer.

Closer.

Closer, still, until Cleo stood in front of the dais. 

The green egg called to her - not in any language Cleo was familiar with, or had heard before, or even in any language. But she could hear it whispering in her mind. 

Cleo put out a hand. 

* * *

" _I_ forgive you," Stress managed out, as she stared at her friend, who had her sword raised to kill the little girl who was held by her husband. "It's not your fault, False. Do not return to who you were." She struggled against the guard, stomping on his foot, wary of the cliff that stood behind her, mere feet. Why Kian had brought them to a cliff that overlooked the lake that the Remoa Mountains fed, she didn't know. 

False looked terrified as she struggled for command against the person that Stress knew that lay inside her head - Sinner Symmetry, the Queen of Hearts and Body Parts. And certainly not her friend. 

" _I_ forgive you," Stress whispered.

But she knew False heard her. 

Her friend shook her head, trying to dislodge the voice that whispered for her to do the deed. 

"Anytime now, Sinner," Kian said, wrenching the young girl's arm. 

False stood up and lowered her sword. "No," she said. "I won't. Never again." 

Kian all but glared at her. "Fine," he spat. 

The little girl he held in his hand burned to ashes, from the inside out. Just flaked away, until there was nothing but ashes that drifted onto the ground. 

False stared at it, horrified, as Kian drew his own sword, stepping toward her. Stress saw the certainty in his eyes, and knew he was about to cause another death.

* * *

Cleo brought her hand down upon the egg. 

The world exploded in magic, in light - in the calls of three distinct birds - 

The smell of earth filled her nostrils as she was tossed through the air by the sheer force of the magic.

* * *

Stress _screamed_.

The temperature dropped, and the fire surrounding Kian burnt out, suddenly, as a cold wind blew across the precipice. Ice formed in small chunks around her feet, and the guard cursed and shoved her away. 

Stress slipped and fell. 

False turned towards her, horrified, throwing her sword away as Stress fell, backward, into the air, flailing as magic left her in a panic, making her feel empty.

She was dropping.

And then she was not. 

False had her by the hand, and Stress clutched her friend's arm like it was everything, refusing to look at the empty space below her. 

False slipped, and her hand barely held onto the cliff face by a single hand, clutching a tiny little hole. 

Only then did Stress did look down, at the thousands of feet down into the lake below. The ice that had formed into icicles at the edge of the cliff dripped water as they melted, as False panted and tried to pull both of them up.

* * *

Cleo's head cleared, her ears ringing, and she opened her eyes to find herself outside the castle, in a small field overlooking the lake that the Remoa Mountain rivers trickled into. 

Something in her felt wrong. 

Her vision went to the cliff that overlooked the lake. 

Two figured dangled over the edge.

And even though they were far away, Cleo knew who they were. Even though she couldn't see the blonde hair on one, and the brown hair on the other, she knew who they were. 

"FALSE!" 

But her scream went unheard.

* * *

False grasped the tiny hole on the cliff face desperately, trying to pull herself and Stress up. 

But she was hurt. 

The nearly-healed cuts on her stomach split, and blood ran freely down her stomach, staining her pants and boots. False gritted her teeth against the pain and propped one of her legs against the wall, her arm trembling as she held on. 

"False."

False looked down at Stress, whose brown eyes were big and full of acceptance.

"Let me go, False," Stress said softly, and even though the wind tore away her words, False knew what she was saying.

"No," False hissed, one of her fingers slipping.

"Let me go, False," Stress repeated. "You can climb up. Let. Me. Go."

False looked up, and then down at her friend. "I'm so sorry," she sobbed. "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Stress said. "Tell Cleo I'm sorry as well." 

Another finger slipped, and False sobbed again, trying one last time to lift her friend up. And she failed.

She always failed.

Again and again and again. 

False looked up one final time, as her third finger slipped. She closed her eyes and whispered a prayer.

And then she let go. 

And then she and Stress were tumbling through the air, towards the lake below, towards certain death - towards freedom. False closed her eyes, her hand still tightly intertwined with Stress's, as the end rushed up to meet her. 

* * *

Cleo screamed as two figures tumbled towards the water. 

She was useless.

So _fucking_ useless. 

The earth exploded before her, as Cleo fell to her knees, deep rents in the earth - caused by her, but she didn't care, she didn't _fucking care_ -

Cleo saw two figures hit the water. 

And though she stared hard, she never saw two emerge. 

In fact, none did at all. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...whoops.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Swearing and - 
> 
> I'm not putting warnings anymore. If you get hurt it's not my fault I've put warnings on literally every chapter and I'm tired of doing ittttttt

Cleo stood there for what seemed like hours, the lake water brushing the tips of her toes and soaking her slippers through - but she didn't care. 

The earth was ruined around her, giant spikes of rock shooting out of the ground in her fit of anger, huge rents in the ground as the earth had split in two - Cleo knew that she'd done that, that it was her magic.

But if she couldn't learn to use her magic with False and Stress by her side, what was the point?

Cleo continued to stare at the surface of the water.

Nobody ever surfaced. 

So Cleo turned and walked away. 

Not to the castle - no, she wasn't ever going back to that horrid place. 

She began her long trek south-west, back to Hermitville, in her dress, in her slippers, without food, a horse, or  _ anything _ \- but she began it. 

Where else did she have to go?

And as the castle faded from view behind a tree, Cleo could've sworn she heard a bird call in the distance.

* * *

It had been following her for days. Cleo could feel it - could see it, occasionally. It was a tiny bird, always fluttering from treetop to treetop; a light green belly and forest green coat, with long pink tailfeathers that reminded her of pink roses that she saw during spring. 

Her dress was torn, by now, and her shoes all but ruined. She'd stolen a brown cloak from one of the farmhouses nearby - not a poor one, she'd made sure of that. She'd doubt they'd notice a single cloak missing. 

It dangled down and covered her dirty red dress, all of the finery lost, the silk splattered with mud and torn from the branches that she'd walked through. 

She'd eaten nuts from trees, and stolen apples from orchards. 

And still, that damn bird had followed her for days. What was it - nine, now? It'd only taken about a week to get to the castle, but that had been on horseback. How long would it take to get home?

Sometimes, she woke up to earthquakes shuddering around her, mirroring her nightmares. Those times, she fled. 

Others, she woke up to gentle birdsong, and cherry blossom trees, which shouldn't be sprouting in the early autumn weather, and a sense of peace. 

She knew it was the green bird that had been following her - he'd sung to her. Or she. But Cleo got the feeling it was a boy. 

She was alone in her journey. She didn't follow the paths - she knew that the guards were looking for her. She took the forest route, the ones with predators - and again, Cleo didn't own a sword. But she knew that she'd reach Hermitville eventually, as it was directly south-east of the Southern castle. 

The bird got braver. She could see it more, and it began to get lower, to sing to her more when she tossed and turned at night, to chirp during the day, no longer silent. 

And one day Cleo woke up, and it did not fly away. 

It hopped around on the log she'd set up to make the fire, warming herself in the cool autumn night. It cocked its head and stared at her with beautiful brown eyes. 

Cleo stared at it. 

It stared at her, the remnants of its beautiful song fading out.

Cleo reached out a hand, and expected it to fly away.

It stayed there for a minute, cocking its head - and then it chirped and leaped onto Cleo's hand.

Her magic exploded within her. 

The trees around her blossomed instantly, pinecones raining around them as Cleo stared at the bird-that-wasn't-a-bird on her hand, her magic flowering uncontrollably. 

The bird squawked, and Cleo's magic fell dormant once more. 

"What are you?" Cleo whispered, bringing her other hand up gently to pet the feathers in its head. 

It cooed and leaned into her touch. 

"Of course you wouldn't answer, why would you?" Cleo snorted and blinked, sitting up in the early morning. The bird stayed on her hand and looked at her, peeping. "You  _ are  _ a boy, right?" She could've sworn that the bird nodded its head, but she was being silly. Birds couldn't understand language. "Do you have a name...or?"

The bird cocked its head again and flew off, but only to the nearest tree - before picking off a leaf and flying back to land on Cleo's shoulder, shocking her. 

Cleo took the proffered leaf from the bird's beak. "You want me to name you Leaf?" she asked skeptically. 

She could've sworn the bird laughed at her, but she was being silly. 

Cleo looked at the leaf, and then looked at the tree. "Aspen?" The bird pecked at her cheek. "Ow! Don't expect me to be good at identifying trees!" She gave another look at the tree, and at the red berries (non-edible) that had sprung from it when her magic had gone crazy. "Rowan? Is your name Rowan?"

The bird chuffed. 

And Cleo felt something nudge at her mind. 

She jumped away, rubbing her head. The bird -  _ Rowan?  _ \- flew off her, startled, coming to rest back on the log. "Hey! Are you doing that?"

Something nudged at her mind again. Cleo shoved it away. "Are you trying to get in my - oh, what am I saying, you're a bird. You can't do anything." She snorted again, and put her head in her hands. "I'm going crazy from the lack of socializing, aren't I?" she asked herself quietly. "I...I just miss them, you know? I stood there for hours and they never surfaced." 

The bird chirped sadly. 

Cleo felt tears start to form in her eyes, and wiped them away angrily. 

She stood up, Rowan still on her shoulders, and grabbed her pack.

And this time, she didn't wipe away the tears that dripped down her face freely as she walked away. 

* * *

She could see Hermitville, in the distance. The apple orchard, where Stress used to work all day. The forest, where False had spent two years. 

Rowan chirped on her shoulder again, taking flight and circling above her, urging her on. He'd become a real companion, even though he couldn't communicate, and Cleo still felt nudges in her head sometimes. 

But Cleo stood on the edge of the hill, staring at her village, just as False had, years ago. "I understand," she said softly. "I understand not wanting to go back." Her lip quivered, as it did often, and she brushed her nearly-brown-with-dirt hair out of her face. "I'll put them in danger. The guards are hunting for me. They'll kill them all."

Rowan chirped again. Cleo could've sworn he'd gotten bigger in the twenty-something days since she'd first met him.

It'd taken her nearly a month to walk home. 

Still, in her dress, her cloak pooled around her shoulders, her skirt ripped, not even red any more - just a dark brown, her feet bloody and bare. 

Cleo stared at the village that was her home. 

And she debated turning around...and going where? She had nowhere to go.

"I understand," she said, thinking of False's words. "I understand not wanting to go back." 

Rowan circled her, tweeting louder, still. 

Cleo squeezed her eyes shut, the tears continuing to pour down her grime-filled face, as the image of her friends falling off the cliff, as she watched from afar, helpless. 

"I hate this," she whispered to herself, rubbing her face. "I hate this." 

Cleo took a shaky breath, and then she headed down the hill. 

It was nearly nightfall - none of the hermits were out. 

Cleo was surprised to see that none of the lights twinkled in the houses, though she ignored Stress's. She was used to seeing False's childhood house dark and empty, though it hurt her heart, because she'd seen it lit for nearly a week before the three girls had been stolen back to the castle. 

And this time, only one had returned. 

Rowan chirped again, and Cleo's attention went to the town hall, where the hermits ate together once a month.

What were the chances that that day was today? She'd long since lost track of what day it was - why now? Why on this day?

Rowan landed on her shoulder, rubbing his soft feathers against Cleo's cheek, his long tail feathers flicking up as he nuzzled her.

It took sheer effort in Cleo's body to not turn and run into the woods, as False had done. One step at a time, one after another, again and again, and again - her nearly bare feet scraping against the cobblestone paved road, houses with a personalized touch on either side of her as she drew nearer to the town hall. 

Scar's house, with its many hundreds of plants, growing on the roof and out of windows.

Mumbo's house, all modernized, with white and cyan concrete lining its small walls, its piston contraptions silent on this usual night of celebration. 

Iskall's house, which usually had piles of iskallium lined along the walls, green and glowing in the night - now it just seemed lonely. 

Grian's house, its dark prismarine coating the top of it, the cold anvils lining the windows - all of it was silent. 

The only light was the sunset and the cold moon that shined from above in its crescent form, and the light that shined from the town halls. 

Cleo stopped beside Stress's beautiful mushroom-topped pink and white house, silent and empty. Rowan chirped nervously on her shoulder, as Cleo shuddered at the sight of it, her shoulders shaking. 

And then all at once, like it did some days, her magic exploded. 

Cleo dropped to her knees and screamed her pain at the sky, and a huge earthquake shook the ground she knelt on. The cobblestone exploded, dark rocks hitting the surface instead of the usual grey ones, and dark spires of rock exploded from Stress's house, ruining it.

She ruined everything. 

Rowan screeched from above, and her magic cut off suddenly, gone - gone, as if it had never existed. Cleo lay in a ball, panting, something in her missing. Stress's house lay in ruins, pink concrete everywhere from the towers of rock that had exploded from the ground. 

She looked up as a beam of light hit her face when the town hall doors were wrenched open, hermits pouring out. 

But Cleo didn't move from her position on the ground, except to sit up suddenly, looking at the ruins of her friend's house. 

She should've saved them. Somehow, she should've. 

Rowan landed on her head and chirped loudly, ruffling his feathers as he pecked at Cleo's head. 

"...Cleo?" someone asked slowly.

Cleo looked up slowly to see Iskall standing there, his sword drawn as he stared at the mess that she was - torn clothes, grimy hair, dirty face, a bird perched on her damn head - gods, she must've looked like a vagabond. 

"What the hell...?" someone said softly, staring at the wreck of Stress's house. "What happened?"

"An earthquake?" Mumbo asked. 

"No," Cleo said, the first words to her friends that she'd said in nearly a month and a half - and she'd pictured this, the reunion, and it wasn't anything like that. "No, that...that was me."

From the top of her head, Rowan cooed and took off into the night sky, flying in circles above her, as he often did when he wanted to stretch his wings.

"Are you okay, Cleo?" Iskall said, coming in front of her and kneeling down, worry in his eyes. "Was that magic?"

Cleo bit her lip and nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, that was - " she hiccuped, and scrubbed at her eyes miserably. "Yeah. That was me," she said blandly. 

"Why would you wreck Stress's house?" Wels asked from behind her. 

Cleo stood on two shaky feet silently as she searched for the correct words, her mouth opening and closing. 

"Cleo?" Iskall said, and Cleo forced herself to look into his brown eyes. "Where are Stress and False?"

"They're gone," Cleo found herself saying, her voice sounding hollow and empty. "I - I couldn't save them - I couldn't save them when they fell - "

Iskall grabbed her shoulders and all but shook her. Rowan chirped threateningly, but Iskall paid no mind, his eyes wide and pleading. "What do you mean, they're  _ gone _ ? They're at the castle, right? We can save them...right?"

"No," Cleo said, shaking her head ever so slightly. "They're  _ dead _ , Iskall. I watched them fall off that cliff into the water thousands of feet high. And then they never surfaced." Her voice shook slightly, threatening to break. 

Iskall stared at her, in shock. 

Cleo laughed hollowly. "I'm royalty, and I still can't do anything."

"What?" Grian asked from behind her. 

She turned to face him. "I'm the princess," she said softly. "I'm the  _ fucking princess of the Southern Kingdom _ ." Her voice rose higher in the silence that surrounded her. "AND I STILL CAN'T DO A FUCKING THING TO SAVE ANYONE! I HAD TO WATCH THEM FALL - and I have to see it every day in my dreams, because I'm so  _ fucking useless _ . All the power in my hands and I can't save two people." Her voice died for a second. "I wish things could go back to where they were eleven years ago." 

Above her, Rowan chirped sadly. 

Cleo took a deep breath and let it out. "I - I wish they weren't gone."

She wished they had resurfaced, that they had somehow lived - but even False's water magic wouldn't be strong enough. How could False have, anyway? What was there to do?


	15. Chapter 15

Something nudged her cheek, sharp and pointy. 

False cracked her eyes open to see a bird staring down at her, with a light blue belly and a navy blue coat, with white speckles. It cocked its head and stared at her, chirping slightly and ruffling its wings. 

False was on her feet in an instant, looking around at the dense forest around her. 

"Where am I?" she asked herself. 

"We're on the other side of the Remoa Mountains," Stress said from behind her.

False shrieked as she spun, reaching for weapons that weren't at her sides as she came face-to-face with the brown-haired girl. "You're alive," she sighed with relief. 

Stress nodded. "And you're very nearly not," she said.

False looked down at herself and winced. She and Stress had torn clothes, blood on hers, though her stomach wounds had healed. She brought a hand to her belly and was surprised to find no blood - no pain. "How long was I out?" she breathed. 

Stress sighed, and it was only then that False noticed a very similar bird on her shoulder, though this one was white and icy blue. "Nearly three days. I dragged you away from the river and brought you to...this place." She gestured around at the shoddy campsite. "You've been in and out of it for hours." 

False's hand went up to the bird that chirped on her shoulders. "Why do we have birds?"

"They're phoenixes," Stress said calmly.

"Phoenixes are legend," False said, staring at the preening bird on her shoulder, who ignored her. 

"So is magic," Stress shrugged. "And you and I seem to have that."

"You have magic?" False asked, confused. 

Stress sighed. "Ice doesn't appear from nowhere, False." The bird on her shoulder puffed up its feathers as Stress held up her hand, a single snowflake appearing, hovering in midair, beautiful and cold. False stared at it for a second, before it cracked and disappeared. The brown-haired girl sighed again. "I'm not really that good at controlling it." 

"Yeah, well, I wasn't either," False breathed out, as she stared at Stress's now-empty palm as the girl brought up her hand to pet her  _ phoenix _ . "Why do we have phoenixes?"

Stress sat down on the log heavily. "Don't ask me," she said that finally. "He told me that I was his mage. Whatever that means."

"He talks to you?" False said, staring at the phoenix on her shoulder, as if it would suddenly start talking. It raised its head from preening and gave her a deathly stare.

Stress shrugged. "Always has," she said. "I woke up by the riverbank, and Glacier was there, as was your phoenix, and he told me that I was his mage."

"What, he just spoke?"

Stress tapped her head. "Some telepathic ability. He speaks, sometimes, though I don't know how to speak back." She cocked her head, as if she was listening, though False didn't hear anything. "He says that you have to learn to bond with your moon phoenix." 

False blinked and stared at the  _ moon phoenix  _ on her shoulder. "Excuse me, what?"

"Don't ask me," Stress said. "I'm merely passing on the message."

False reached out a hand to pet the phoenix, just as Stress had done, and withdrew it quickly when it bit her. "Ow! I don't think it likes me very much."

The phoenix hissed at her, but remained on her shoulder. 

" _ It  _ is a girl," Stress said. 

"What's  _ her  _ name?" False asked. 

"You'll have to figure that out for yourself," Stress said with a small shrug as she stretched. "I know nothing about phoenixes."

False stared at her for a second, and then looked at the forest around them. "What now?"

Stress shifted on the log. "I've been waiting for you to wake up. Glacier has brought me nuts and stuff, and I've been attempting to practice magic - hasn't really gone that well, I can only conjure snowflakes, not icicles - but..."

Instead of looking south, where False could see the Remoa mountains towering over them, Stress turned north. "I - I have this feeling in my chest that's telling me to go north. To - to find something." 

"Oh, yeah," False said with a small snort. "Because you should always listen to feelings."

"I'm serious, False," Stress said, annoyance poking through her normally sweet tone. On her shoulder, Glacier chirped excitedly, leaping off the girl's shoulder and flapping his wings around in a circle. On False's shoulder, the moon phoenix was content to ignore the world, preening her navy blue feathers. 

"What about home?" False demanded. 

"You know as well as I that they will be looking for us back at Hermitville," Stress pointed out. "We can't be there. Not until this all blows over."

"It didn't blow over for two years," False pointed out. 

"You said they forgot once," Stress said. "They may forget twice."

"What about Cleo?"

Glacier landed with a heavy thump on False's other shoulder, chirping at the moon phoenix, who ignored him heavily. 

Stress watched the exchange with a small smile. "Cleo has Rowan." False's eyes widened, jumping to conclusions, and Stress was quick to explain. "Her nature phoenix, False." 

"Oh," False said. "That's less anticlimatic than I - wait. You want us to go north, based on a gut feeling, with targets on our backs from the Southern soldiers -  _ hold on _ . You want  _ me  _ to go north? People hate me!"

"They've only met you in battle," Stress said calmly, still staring north. 

False gestured wildly. "This doesn't make any  _ sense _ ! Why do you want to go north?"

"It's my destiny," Stress said with a small hum. 

False merely gaped at her. "Are you  _ sure  _ you didn't hit your head or something?"

Stress spun, anger in her voice. "I can't  _ explain  _ it, False! But something is telling me to go north! It's my  _ destiny _ !"

"You can't just follow your gut to your destiny!" False said, jerking a thumb at the Remoa Mountains behind her. "We have people back home! Friends! Family! People who  _ care _ ." 

"People we can't go back to!" Stress said, raising her voice. "I volunteered to go to the castle because I wanted to be with you guys - and because something in me  _ told  _ me to."

"You're possessed," False deadpanned. 

"I'm not possessed!" Stress said, and Glacier took off from False's shoulder to land back on Stress's. "You didn't go back into Hermitville, either, False, because you were afraid of us getting hurt. We can't go back, and I'm not sitting in the forest for two years, watching my friends grow up, when I could be doing something else."

"Doing  _ what _ ?" False demanded. 

"Following my destiny!" Stress said. 

"This is ridiculous," False said. 

"It's  _ not  _ ridiculous!" Stress screeched, throwing her hands to the side. 

The temperature in the campsite dropped instantly, frost forming on the leaves as they curled up in the cool. Glacier lifted his head, his icy blue eyes interested. Even the moon phoenix chirped from False's shoulder as Stress stared around. 

False focused on Stress, who was on the verge of freaking out. "Look, Stress, I will follow you because you're my friend, not because I believe your destiny lies north. And because you're right - it's not like we can return to Hermitville anytime soon. Cleo...Cleo will be fine." She hoped. "Plus, who's supposed to teach you about magic?"

Stress's brow wrinkled as False lifted a hand to the frozen water on the leaves around the brown-haired girl. The ice, no longer controlled by Stress, melted and formed a tiny stream in the air, which False directed around Stress, small beads of sweat forming on her brow. She wasn't actually  _ that  _ good at magic - but it was at least controlled, instead of Stress's random instincts. 

"I'm sorry I can't explain more," Stress said finally, as the water stream fell to the ground when False couldn't hold it anymore. 

False smiled kindly, sitting down on the log next to Stress. On her shoulder, the moon phoenix chirped angrily and flew off in a huff, flying to the nearest branch. False ignored it, and touched Stress's shoulder. "I'm sorry I can't explain more as well."

One thing she wasn't sorry about?

The voice in her head. 

It was gone. 

* * *

Stress and False journeyed north, slowly, over a month. Stress had no idea what she was looking for, so they mostly wandered, ignoring the roads and the villages they passed. It started to get colder, after a while, and became far easier for Stress to conjure ice, and harder for False to melt it. 

The moon phoenix still hadn't talked to her - hadn't done anything but chirp and bite at her when she tried to pet it, but it  _ did  _ stay on her shoulder, so that was something. 

False stared at the icicle on the ground that Stress had conjured with a bit of effort, from the small stream that trickled nearby. She licked her cracked lips in an effort to ignore the small blood that trickled from her mouth when she smiled. Stress stared at the icicle as well, her fists clenched, as she attempted to stop the icicle from melting. 

It was melting, though. It was already half its size within the first two minutes - not some of Stress's best work, but not some of her worst, either. 

"Come on, Stress," False said, wiping the sweat away from her forehead. "Keep me from melting it."

"I'm  _ trying _ ," the brown-haired girl said with a small grunt. The small trickles of water flowing down the icicle froze for a second, before they remelted and hit the ground again, adding to the wet earth around it. 

Glacier and the moon phoenix, sitting on the nearest branch took flight suddenly, their long tail feathers shooting up into the sky until they were mere specks in the sky - birds, to everyone else. False paid no mind to them; they did this often when they wanted to play and stretch their wings. They were growing - her moon phoenix was nearly as big as a hawk, now, instead of as big as a crow. 

"Concentrate," False hissed, as another bead of water fell from the tip of the icicle, slowly trickling down one of the many grooves.

"I  _ am  _ concentrating," Stress said back, nearly going cross-eyed as she again froze the little stream of water. False waved her hand and it dripped down onto the ground.

"Not hard enough," False said. 

Stress gritted her teeth, focusing on the next bead of water - but then paused. 

And the entire icicle melted under False's strain. 

"What was that?" False demanded. 

"People are coming," Stress breathed.

False tilted her head. She didn't hear anything. "How do you know?"

"Glacier." 

The two girls stood back-to-back in the campsite, False gripping a handmade wooden knife, and Stress a rock. Perhaps not the best weapons - but then again, hopefully, regular people found them and not people who recognized False. 

Not that anyone would recognize her. She'd cut her hair short and dyed it using berries into a strawberry blonde color. As for Stress - nobody knew her here like they knew False. 

Something nudged at her mind. False blinked. A feminine voice filled her mind - young, but aged at the same time. 

_ Soldiers are coming. Be on the ready _ .

And then the voice was gone. 

False peered up at the two circling specks above, wondering if she was going crazy or if that had been the moon phoenix who'd spoken to her. 

False raised her crude dagger, peering into the forest as a twig snapped. 

And then three men stepped into the clearing. 

The center one, the leader, bore a shining blue sword, white hair - though he was young, not old - a blue mask over the lower half of his face, and a scar through his left eye, the pupil red and angry. 

Stress turned towards them, her rock in hand, as False stepped in front of her friend. 

"Relax," the center one said easily. "We're not going to try to hurt you. We just want to know who you are." 

Stress glanced at False worriedly, and cleared her throat as she dropped the rock. False did not lower her knife, though, because the man on the left carried a bow, though it wasn't currently aimed at her. "We're refugees," the brown-haired girl said finally, sticking to the story that they'd agreed on - telling the truth, just not the whole truth. "We were prisoners in the Southern castle, and we washed up here. And...we can't go home."

"Can't go home, or don't want to?" the man in the white T-shirt asked. 

"Can't," False stressed. "They'll kill everyone in the village if we go back. They already tried to once. I won't see them kill my friends again."

The center man sighed. "Wise enough." He eyed them. "Do you, perhaps, possess any...corruption?" 

"If you mean corrupted magic," Stress said after a second. "No. If you mean wrongness in the head...I wouldn't know. It was a very terrifying few weeks in the castle."

"I can imagine," the brown-haired man who carried the bow said. 

"I have valuable information," False said, stepping forward. "Valuable information regarding the royal family and the plan of the war."

"How?" the center man asked. 

"As my friend said," False said with a small nod. "It's been a very long few weeks."

Far longer than that. 

The man with the sword pulled down his mask, and grinned at her. "Well, then," he said finally. "You're welcome to join the rest of the...survivors...who have come trickling in here from the South." He held out a hand. "I'm Etho."

Stress smiled warmly and took Etho's hand, stepping in front of False's wary form. "Nice to meet you, Etho," she said. "I'm Stress. Don't mind my good friend False, here - she's had a rough few months." 

"Looks like it," Etho grinned, and then gestured to his companions. "This is Bdubs - " The man in the white shirt waved. " - and Keralis." The one with the bow nodded respectfully. "I would appreciate it if you would drop the weapon. We don't want to hurt anybody here." 

"Oh, yeah," False spat. "I'm supposed to believe that." 

Stress rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on, False." She reached out and gripped False's hand. "Besides, you can just kill them if they betray us." She winked. 

Keralis snorted. "Oh, yeah. That'd end well."

False ignored him and clasped Stress's hand, a grin on her face. "I hope you find your destiny here, Stress."

"I hope so too," Stress said softly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Introducing...
> 
> Etho  
> Keralis  
> Bdubs
> 
> ...and soon to be more!


	16. Chapter 16

The castle was far nicer than the Southern castle, that was all False could say as she followed Etho, Keralis, and Bdubs through the gates. It had vines growing on the wall, natural trees growing all around - and best of all? No cliffs to fall off of and fatally die.

At least not one that you could see. 

"You said you had valuable information regarding the Southern kingdom?" Etho asked her, dropping back to talk to her. 

False nodded. 

"How did you come by this information?" Etho said, his eyes narrowing - but he made no move to draw the sword currently strapped to his side. 

False stared at the blooming flowers on all sides of her - flowers that shouldn't be blooming in the nearing winter. "Experience," she said after a moment. "I watched. I learned. I was hurt. And I did horrible things to ensure my survival." Her gut clenched. 

But Etho only nodded warily. "The longer this war continues," he said. "The more people will be hurt in the outcome. You did what was necessary." He grinned. "Besides, at least you haven't done what some of the Southern leaders have done. The Black Knight and the Queen of Hearts. Ever heard of them.

False fought to keep her face straight. "Yeah," she said after a second. "I've seen them around." 

Etho shuddered. "Be glad you never _fought_ them. They're supposed to be some of the best swordsmen around, and absolutely _ruthless_." False winced at the horror in his voice. "They've killed hundreds of people for sport, and slain thousands on the battlefield." 

False said nothing. What could she say?

The guards let them into the inner gates, and then finally into the room where Etho had said the lord of the castle would meet them. He'd also said that the royal family was long dead, which False knew - but didn't let on that she knew. Only a select few knew, including Kian and the queen and king - and she was guessing Cleo, now. If the girl wasn't dead by this point, which she _refused_ to think about. Cleo couldn't be dead. She was too stubborn to be dead. 

Etho motioned for them to pause at the doorway, and he poked his head in. "Yeah, I'm here with a few refugees - yes, it's important. It seems they have information regarding the Southern Kingdom - _no_ , Skeppy - "

The door blew open to reveal an over-happy boy around Stress's age, with black hair and golden skin and wearing spray-painted blue armor. "Hiiiii," he said. "I'm Skeppy. Nice to meet you." 

"Skeppy!" 

Another man stumbled out the door, this one with brown hair and green eyes, wearing a red and black cloak. "Are you bothering Etho again?"

Skeppy looked affronted. "What - _me_? No, of course not." 

The man with the light brown hair narrowed his eyes at Skeppy. "Are you trolling me again?"

Etho ran a hand through his white hair. "BBH, Skeppy, now is not the _time_ for your shenanigans." He gestured at False and Stress. "They have urgent information."

"Urgent," Stress muttered. "Urgent, they say."

"Yep," False said loudly. "Urgent." 

"Somehow - " Skeppy started, but BBH grabbed his blue sweatshirt and hauled him out of the doorway. 

Etho smiled at her. "Through the door, you go," he said, eyeing their bare feet. "I would ask you to take off your shoes, but..."

"Yeah, thanks," False muttered, and all but shouldered past him into the room. 

It had huge stained windows on each side, leading up to a throne - but the throne remained empty, and instead, a smaller chair had been constructed next to it, made out of marble instead of stone. 

But nobody was in that one either. 

"If you're wondering," Skeppy said. "He's in the courtyard with his pig."

"It's not a _pig_ ," BBH said with annoyance. "It's a phoenix, the last of its kind - "

False looked at Stress, who shrugged back at her. Their phoenixes circled far above, little specks in the sky. 

False headed out the side door into the courtyard, which was more a training courtyard than anything - practice weapons and real weapons lined the walls, the ground was a perfectly flat area of grass, and training dummies lined the walls. 

A giant bird - a phoenix - lay in a curled ball, its fire-colored wings tucked into it. It looked asleep, actually - and it was beautiful. It was mainly red, but the color faded to orange at the tips of its wings, and then to yellow on its long tail feathers. A man stood next to it, leaning on his sword, his dyed pink hair cut short around the nape of his neck. He wore a red cape lined with white fluff at the end of it. 

The phoenix raised its head as False and Stress entered the courtyard, opening its caramel brown eyes. 

"Oh, wow," Stress murmured. "Is that the size Glacier is going to be?"

False had no words. 

The phoenix hissed at False, surprising her, and leaped up onto its legs, its wings spreading wide, puffing up. 

The man spun, looking towards False and Stress, and raising his sword. "Ash says you smell like phoenix eggs," he said dangerously. "I mean, I'm not one to jump to conclusions, but - "

The fire phoenix - Ash - leaped towards False, who was too frozen in shock to do anything but stand there. 

Before Ash could eat her, or burn her alive, or claw her to death - False wasn't sure - two small shadows plummeted from the sky, one of them landing on False's head, causing her to lurch painfully from the added weight. Glacier landed on Stress's shoulder, far more gracefully than the moon phoenix ever had. 

The fully-grown fire phoenix screeched to a halt. False could've sworn the moon phoenix on her head chirped obnoxiously. 

"Hi, Glacier," Stress cooed, and ran her fingers through Glacier's blue-white feathers. "Catch anything?" She cocked her head. "Oh. You were watching for danger."

False reached up to pat the moon phoenix as well, but it snapped at her and she withdrew her hand. "You land on _my_ head, little missy, but I can't touch you?" The phoenix chirped in response, pecking at her dyed strawberry-blonde hair. "Hey!" 

The fire phoenix raised his head and crowed triumphantly, scaring Stress, who let out a tiny shriek as Ash flapped his wings. 

The pink-haired man ducked under Ash's raised wing, amazement in his brown eyes. "You - you have phoenixes." 

"I think she has me," False muttered, as she tried to tip back her head to see the moon phoenix - which snapped at her again. "HEY! Don't do that." There was no response from the preening bird - or anyone around her. Stress shifted, looking uncomfortable. 

False looked around to see everyone looking at them, eyes wide, jaws dropped - even Skeppy and BBH had stopped playfighting to stare at them. "Um...are you guys okay?" 

"Who are you?" Etho asked her. 

"I'm False," False said. "And this is Stress. We're...people." 

Ash chirped, and the moon phoenix perked up from on top of False's head. She took flight and landed on Ash's head instead. 

"Traitor," False muttered. 

"Nonononono," the man with the pink hair said. "You can't just say you're _people_. Everybody's a person." He paused. "Mostly everybody's a person. But that's beside the point - how did you come by phoenixes?" 

False looked at Stress, who scratched her head before she spoke. "Well, we fell off a cliff and hit the water - "

"...what?" Keralis interrupted. 

False rolled her eyes and continued Stress's story. "Yeah, so you know the Black Knight? Well, he thought it would be a good idea to take us to the top of the cliff, and then I kinda disobeyed him, and then he was going to attack me, but Stress came along and...did some things, and then we both ended tumbling off the cliff into the water, and I _thought_ I was going to die, but when I woke up, there was a phoenix pecking my face, and Stress told me she'd dragged us out of the river. It was like a week later, too, because my wounds had healed." 

"When I woke up eight days prior," Stress said softly. "Glacier was there. And he told me to go north, and there was a gut feeling that my destiny was here." 

There was absolute silence.

"Wow, that's a really obscure story," the pink-haired man said. He held out his hand. "I'm Technoblade. You can call me Techno." 

Stress shook it firmly. "Nice to meet you." 

Techno ran a hand through Ash's feathers fondly, and the phoenix trilled. "So what's this about information?"

Stress backed off. "Hey, I was only in the castle for three weeks. I don't know much." 

Bdubs snorted. "And here I thought you were going to have some valuable information. I was there for two and a half months, and I learned barely anything."

Etho fixed him with a look. "Even if they don't have any valuable information, they're phoenix riders, just as Techno is. That's something else."

False laughed. 

She _laughed_. And it wasn't a happy laugh, either. It was a crazed one, at Bdub's slightly mean words. 

Everyone stared at her oddly. 

Especially Bdubs.

"You have a problem?" the white-shirted man asked her. 

" _Stress_ was in the castle for three weeks, not me."

Bdubs sneered at her. "Oh, yeah? You were probably only there for a few months, just like me. Honestly, I'm surprised you're still alive. But since you're girls, I bet they went easier on you."

False gritted her teeth and grabbed her shirt and tugged upwards, revealing her stomach, where hundreds of pale white scars remained, the largest one the one that Kian had given her in Hermitville. "Try nine years," she said softly. " _Nine years_ of that shit."

Stress was silent beside her. 

"And it wasn't _easy_ ," False said, bringing her other hand to point at the stark wound on her stomach. "The Black Knight stabbed me there, all the way through, nearly a month ago. Two years ago, I escaped the castle and went home - except they were looking for me, because I'd been there ever since I was eight, and I knew things." Partially true. "I watched over my village, and the moment I get found out by Stress and another one of my childhood friends, Grian, the Dragon Guards drag Stress, Cleo, and I back." False neglected to mention the fact that Xisuma had sold her out, though she didn't really blame him. "I was missing from my home for eleven years. It wasn't _easy_ , and then I was dragged back." False let go of her shirt, and it fell across her stomach. "And then we fell off a cliff, and now everyone thinks we're dead - how do you think my village feels?" Not that they probably knew. "They lost me once, eight years ago. Stress, Cleo, and I were part of the sixty girls they took to do experiments on. They went free, without their memory, and I stayed. And they told me that if I tried to leave, if I didn't do what they said, they would kill everyone I'd ever loved, including the prisoners of the Northern Kingdom. So I couldn't leave. And I had to do everything they said. And I was useless to do anything but be a slave. And when I was fifteen, I was married off to a man whom I despised. _That_ was horrible." False shuddered. "So don't _you_ jump to conclusions, and don't you tell Stress that her experience was any less because you spent more time there. Women have other things to fear than pain." She glared at him, daring him to respond, but Bdubs just looked shocked.

Actually, everybody looked shocked. 

"What about information?" Techno asked, and False was glad for the break in the awkward silence. 

"The Princess of the South has been found," Stress said softly. 

"Wait, so Sinner _isn't_ going to take the throne?" Skeppy asked. "Thank goodness for that, haha." 

False nearly winced. 

"This princess could be worse than Sinner," Etho warned. 

"Nobody's worse than Sinner," Skeppy argued. 

False _did_ wince that time, and Stress reached over and squeezed her hand. 

"The Princess of the Southern Kingdom is one of my best friends," False said. "Cleo. I mentioned her a few times. She was one of the ones experimented on; one of the sixty girls. She doesn't support the queen, or the king." False didn't want to mention that perhaps Cleo could be swayed. 

_And she's a phoenix rider_ , the moon phoenix said to her head, continuing to preen herself. 

False snorted. "Oh, _now_ you talk to me?" 

Techno coughed. "Actually, she talked to all of us." He squinted at the navy-blue and white phoenix on Ash's head. "What's her name?" 

False shrugged. "I _wouldn't know._ I haven't gotten the chance to interact with her. Conceited, maybe? She preens herself a lot." 

_Funny,_ the phoenix said. _Hilarious_. 

A male voice filled False's mind. _I thought it was funny_ , Glacier said. Stress looked surprised at the turn of events. 

Techno sighed. "Look, it doesn't matter what her name is right now - you two are phoenix riders." He leaned forward on his sword. "Congrats."

Stress looked confused. "What does that mean?"

"War is coming, soon," Techno said, looking south. "We need all the help we can get." 

Stress's mouth dropped. "I'm not a _soldier_." False resisted saying that she was. "I don't know how to fight."

"Then I'll teach you," Techno said. "Both of you."

"No," False said, backing away. "No."

"Why?" Keralis asked her.

"I've had enough about swords for a while," False said firmly. "I'm not ever going to pick one up." Again. 

"What - " Techno started, as False fled through the archway back into the throne room. 

"Let her go," she heard Stress say. "It's an odd feeling, being free."


	17. Chapter 17

Cleo jammed a dagger into the map where the castle was. "Right," she said. "It took me around a month to get home. The Dragon Guards, and Kian, will probably be here any day to _murder us all_. We have to get out of here."

"And do what?" Grian asked, in the silence of the war tent. "We have nowhere to go." 

"Well, we better find someplace soon," Cleo said with a small snarl. "Or we're going to find a way to the other side of this world. Because we certainly can't match their numbers, or Kian's sheer skill - so we either stay, and die, or move somewhere else - do something else, and live." 

"Cleo," Joe said softly. 

"What?" Cleo demanded. 

"Can I talk to you outside?"

Cleo blinked. "Uh. Sure." She followed Joe out of the tent, leaving the rest of the hermits behind. 

"Cleo," Joe said softly. "What you're saying is right. But the _way_ you're saying it is wrong."

"But we need to get out of here!" Cleo argued.

Joe put a hand on Cleo's shoulder. "I know. And they know it too. But it's been our home for so long, that it's going to be hard to leave, even if the other hermits have gotten the realization that they need to do so. What you're asking isn't about _moving_ , Cleo, it's about starting a revolution." 

Cleo stared at him.

From the nearby perch on a tree, Rowan chirped and flew to her shoulder. He was big, now, about as big as a medium-sized dog, and hurt her arms when he landed. He rubbed his head against Cleo's hair.

Joe nodded. "You are the Princess of the Southern Kingdom, Cleo," he said gently. "And you will be the queen, one day. You plan on overthrowing the current rulers, so that all the little girls and boys don't get stolen away and become like False and Kian. What else would you call that?"

"I - I didn't realize," Cleo said, her eyes wide. 

"Remember those words you told me about, in that old book?" Joe asked. "You're a phoenix rider, Cleo. You are also a mage. False was a mage."

"But we can't start a revolution!" Cleo argued. "We don't have enough people, or tools - "

"The best businesses often start in the basement of a room," Joe told her. "People will join, given the chance - if they know we can win. When _we're_ sure we'll win. We need allies." 

Cleo spun and looked at the Remoa Mountains. "What about the North?" she asked. 

Joe nodded. "I was thinking about that. They're already fighting a war. They'll need someone on the throne, one day, if they win." 

"I'm not a good ruler," Cleo said angrily. "I'm not fit to be a ruler." 

"Honestly, anybody is better than those two misfits on the throne right now," Joe pointed out. "We'll be here every step of the way. _I'll_ be right there every step of the way."

Cleo smiled fondly. "Thanks, Joe." 

Joe stepped forward and wrapped her into a hug. Cleo closed her eyes and hugged her back. "I...I miss them." 

Joe's hug tightened. "They're watching us, somewhere," he said softly. "They would have stood by your side as well, if they survived." 

"I know," Cleo managed to choke out. "But...it's odd, knowing they're gone."

From her shoulder, Rowan let out a mournful chirp.

* * *

Cleo sat in the ruins of Stress's house, poking through the wreckage for anything salvageable. So far, she'd found a blanket, a few pictures, and Stress's fluffy cupcake pillow that she'd moved to a box outside. 

After a few minutes of concentration, she'd been able to retract the stone spires - but Stress's house would either need serious repair or they'd have to build a new one. 

She'd managed to convince them that they needed to move out, finally, after a few hours of debate - not to mention some screaming. They'd agreed that they'd go north, though Cleo wasn't sure of the Northern Kingdom would _allow_ them to go beyond the Remoa Mountains - because she was technically the heir. 

Rowan chirped from his position on Stress's bed, and Cleo turned towards him, pushing away the broken glass that was a part of a picture that wasn't salvageable. "What is it?" she asked. 

Rowan took flight, circling gently in the air, chirping at her. Cleo stood up. "Do you want me to follow you?" 

Rowan chirped louder. Cleo grumbled softly, before following the green phoenix in the near darkness. He led her towards the forest, and Cleo had to run to keep up - luckily she'd shed that horrid royal dress hours earlier, for a pair of leather pants and a blue navy shirt. 

Rowan led her to Xisuma's house, and flew through the open window. 

"What am I supposed to do, climb through the window?" Cleo grumbled, before knocking on the door. Nobody answered.

So Cleo walked in.

She probably shouldn't have intruded on Xisuma's space, especially since she'd already broken down one house - not to mention it was late at night. 

Xisuma sat on his bed, his head in his hands. Rowan lay curled in a ball near him, silent. 

Cleo blinked awkwardly. She'd never been good with emotions - that had been Stress's job, not hers. "Are - are you okay?"

Xisuma looked up, his blue eyes swimming with tears. "It's my fault they're gone," he said softly.

"Woah, Woah, Woah - " Cleo said angrily, propping her arms on her hips. "You're blaming _yourself_ for this?"

Xisuma cocked his head at her. "...yeah, I turned False in."

" _First of all_ ," Cleo seethed. "You, and many others, thought she was Sinner - or, well, Sinner, and _not_ False. You are not the only one who didn't believe Iskall and I. I do not blame you for turning in someone who was posted as a murderer. We're supposed to have _faith_ in our kingdom, and they failed us, X. They failed us. You are not the one who tossed her off a cliff, nor are you the one who tortured her. You are not the one who threw Stress and me into a cell - the queen and king did that of their own jurisdiction." Cleo smiled sadly. "I'm sure wherever Stress and False are, they do not blame you." 

Xisuma looked at her for a second. "Thanks, Cleo," he said awkwardly. "For not blaming me" He paused. "In your own, angry way."

"I'm not sure whether to be offended or glad," Cleo grumbled. 

* * *

Cleo stood on the hill, Iskall, and Xisuma by her side, and she watched her home burn. 

Wagons and horses and hermits ladened with bags stood behind her, carrying all the precious things and necessities - pictures and tools and items and blankets and food - and they all watched their houses burn. 

Hermitcraft burned. 

Cleo dropped the flint and steel on the top of the hill and felt a tear trickle down her face when the flames hit False's childhood house. 

But it needed to be done. A freak fire had killed them all - no vacated houses for people to wonder where its occupants had gone. No grown crops, waiting to be picked. 

Cleo closed her eyes as the fire crackled, hot, into Stress's apple orchard, where Mumbo and Doc had sprinkled some of the flammable stuff that she didn't understand. On her back, her pack felt heavier than ever, filled with pictures and apples from her friend's orchard. At her side, her sword seemed to gain weight. 

"Cleo," Iskall whispered, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Now."

Rowan dived from the air and landed on her shoulder. 

It was far easier to control her magic with him helping her check it, and he'd grown overnight - about the size of a fox, now. He almost didn't fit on her shoulder.

Cleo took a deep breath and reached for the roiling nature back in her body, fighting to keep it in check as her anger threatened to break the surface. This had been her plan - and while all of them had agreed to it, none of them had much liked it. 

The earth shuddered under Cleo's perilous hold on her magic, the earth splitting in two down the main pathway. 

A male voice filled her head. _Concentrate_ , Rowan warned. _Or you may bring us all down with you_. 

Cleo's eyes flew open, and the earth shuddered under her feet, bringing a few cries from the hermits who stood behind her. "You can talk?" she asked the phoenix on her shoulder. 

Rowan chirped at her. _Concentrate_. He ruffled his feathers as he fought to build the barriers on Cleo's rushing river of magic, slowing it to a small stream. _You must learn to control it._

"I'm _trying_ ," Cleo said through gritted teeth. 

The crack in the earth in Hermitville slowly split wider, swallowing Grian and Mumbo's houses, cries of dismay sounding from said hermits. Cleo winced, but continued. 

And when she was done, the fire burned brighter still - and the village looked as if it'd been struck with both an earthquake and a wildfire all at once.

Cleo wiped away the tears from her cheeks, unable to look at what she'd done, even though Iskall clapped her on the back and many of them told her good job - she'd destroyed their home. _Her_ home. The only home they'd ever known.

She clenched her fists tighter as Rowan nuzzled her hair. She'd make them pay. She'd make Kian and her mother and father _pay_ for what they'd been forced to do. She'd rain down hell on them until they died an ugly death for what they had done to Stress and to False - 

\- and she didn't care if that made her a murderer. 

Revenge was merely revenge. 


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Blood & Gore

False sat in the corner of the courtyard, staring at Luna, her moon phoenix - who had finally told her her godforsaken name, in the middle of the night, when she'd nearly fallen off the balcony. 

Techno, who sparred with Stress - sparred wasn't really the word, more like Techno _destroyed_ the poor girl over and over again - had told her that the key to talking to your phoenix was to get them to trust you. Glacier and Ash talked to their riders often - but Luna remained silent, except when False was concentrating on something, and then she spoke, rarely.

The inhabitants of the castle still didn't know that False and Stress had magic, and False wanted to keep it that way. They knew that the two had been test subjects - and False feared that they would turn Stress and her away in fear that the two had _corrupted_ magic, though she didn't. Corrupted magic was black, like Kian's fire, and like the queen's dark earth magic that she used from time to time. 

It was easily proven, but False didn't want to add any more oddness to her story, so she hadn't spoken about it. She hadn't needed to. 

"Come on, Luna," False said through gritted teeth. "Talk to me." 

The phoenix, who was now about as big as a wolf, after three weeks, merely turned her head and preened her feathers. Luna did that a lot, for some reason. 

False tilted her head at Luna. Soon enough, she would be as big as Ash - and she dreaded that time, because Luna didn't talk to her, which was necessary, Techno said, for them to fly. 

_Fly_. Through the air. That should've been a dream come true - it certainly was for Stress. But False preferred solid ground under her feet, not flying, and certainly not flying on a phoenix who hated her. 

_I don't hate you_ , Luna sniffed, eyeing her icily. 

False rolled her eyes. Yeah, when she least expected it, the phoenix talked to her. "Why don't you want to talk to me?"

"Maybe because you're boring?" Skeppy said from behind her.

If False had had a sword, she would've beheaded Skeppy. As it was, she merely jumped. "Why would you sneak up behind me?"

"He likes annoying people," BBH said, popping up from behind Skeppy. The two usually stuck around together, thick as thieves. 

Skeppy fake-gasped. "You think I'm annoying?"

BBH looked taken aback. "Wha - no, that's not what I - "

"My feelings are hurt, Bad," Skeppy grumbled.

"I'm sorry -"

"He's joking, BBH," False said, rolling her eyes at the two's antics. 

"Oh," BBH said, turning to Skeppy. "You _muffin_! Don't do that to me!"

Skeppy giggled. "Hey, TECHNO!"

Technoblade sighed, and motioned for Stress to go take a water break. Behind his back, False smirked when she saw her friend breathe a sigh of relief. "What do you want?"

"No need to sound so rude," Skeppy said, sounding offended. "Remember that time during Christmas when we had that minigame to collect presents and you stole them all from the rest of us?" 

"Yeah?" Techno said easily. 

"You were basically stealing presents from orphans," Skeppy said. 

From behind him, BadBoyHalo facepalmed. 

False was used to Skeppy's antics by now, and turned to Techno, ready to see him do his usual thing - and roast Skeppy. 

He certainly lived up to False's expectations. 

"Dude, those orphans were getting _destroyed_." 

False muffled a laugh as Stress wandered over, plopping down beside her and reaching for the pitcher of water that lay in the shade, Glacier curled around it - an ice dragon, as Techno had told them, keeping it cool with his low body temperature. 

"That was brutal," Stress muttered, drinking straight from the pitcher of water. She eyed False. "And _I_ have a nice teacher. How did you manage - "

False shushed her, turning to see if any of the other three occupants in the courtyard had heard Stress blurt out one of her secrets. 

But no. Skeppy and Techno were too wrapped up in their weekly roast battle - one-sided roast battle. 

"I hate when you answer me, because you always make me seem like some kind of stupid person," Skeppy pouted. 

"Yes, that was _my_ doing," Techno said, throwing absolute shade. BBH fought to keep a smile off his face. "I mean, was I supposed to _not_ answer you? Because a sentence ending like that made me assume it was a question directed at me." 

Skeppy scowled. 

"Break's over," Techno said abruptly to Stress, who grumbled as she hefted her practice sword once more. He eyed False. "Are you _sure_ you don't want to learn how to become useful in this war?"

False ignored the sarcastic slight. "Yep," she said. "One-hundred percent." 

"Great," Techno said. "Go with Skeppy and Bad, and go to the scout encampment south of here." He addressed Skeppy. "Biffa and A6D should be coming back from their mission."

Skeppy perked up. " _Really_? It's been forever."

"It's been seven months, Skeppy," Techno stated coolly. "Longer than any of your friendships, sure, but not _that_ long." 

"You-you're just rude," Skeppy spluttered. 

Techno waved a hand at them before returning his attention to Stress. "Hippity hoppity get off my property." 

* * *

"So," False said awkwardly, as she walked next to BBH and Skeppy in the forest, about twenty minutes later, Luna flying from tree-to-tree behind her, no longer able to balance on her shoulder. "Who is Biffa and A6D, and what mission are they on?"

"Well," BBH said after Skeppy remained silent. "A6D is a guy we've known, for like, _forever_ , and they went on a spying mission into the castle."

"I've never seen them," False said hesitantly. 

Skeppy sighed. "Yeah, that's the whole point." He made a face. "He wouldn't send Bad or I, because I was too volatile - and Bad, would try to save everyone. This was strictly an information-only mission."

"But _why_?" BBH said angrily. "They could save people."

"They could save everyone, or nobody at all," False said quietly. "And even if they did - what about the future prisoners? If you plan to fight your enemy, you first must _know_ your enemy. Techno made the right choice by asking them to scout _only_." 

"People die in the castle," Bad argued. "They die and never come back."

"And children are being stolen away from their homes and villages," False shot back. "You cannot give up your spies to save a few people _here_ and _now_ . Not everyone will survive this war - it is why it is so hesitantly got into, and why it is so horrible to look back on, _because_ of the deaths. If nobody died, then wars wouldn't be wars. Think of the future, Bad, and not of the present." 

BBH turned and looked at her. "How old are you?"

False blushed. "Nineteen." 

Bad grumbled. "I'm _twenty-five_." 

"You're _old~_!" Skeppy sang loudly.

Bad sighed. "Twenty-five isn't old," he muttered. He stopped in his tracks, and then turned left suddenly. "We're nearly there."

"Where are we going?" False demanded.

"No idea," Skeppy said easily. "I've never been here before." 

Bad sighed _again._ "We're going down a tunnel that leads under the Remoa Mountains. We should meet them a little way in." 

"Why am _I_ here?" False asked. 

"I suspect because Techno wishes to teach you a lesson," BBH said easily. "Though I'm not sure. He just wanted to get Skeppy out of the castle while he was training Stress, and this was a liable excuse." 

Luna chirped from her position in the branches, obviously agreeing with Bad. 

False spun to look at the navy-blue and white moon phoenix. "Aren't you supposed to be on _my_ side?"

_Not if you're wrong_ , Luna said. _What am I - a dog?_

False rolled her eyes and turned around. 

BBH led them to a cave entrance around twelve minutes later, which was lit by smoldering torches and went downwards, curving left out of sight. False stared at it warily, before following the two into it. 

It took a while before the cave flattened out into a long passageway that False had to squint to see down. Two figures leaned against the wall, one wearing a black and silver headpiece, and the other wearing a golden one, dressed in red. 

Skeppy ran forward and hugged the one dressed in black. "A6D!" he squealed. 

"...hi, Skeppy," the one called A6D said. 

Bad walked _normally_ over, and nodded his head towards the one dressed in red and gold. "Biffa," he said, semi-formally. 

Biffa nodded back, and then his eyes focused on False. "Who're you?" he asked. 

"I'm - "

" _YOU_!" 

False jumped back, startled, and Luna hurtled from behind her to stand in front of her protectively, letting out a snarling chirp as she ruffled her feathers. "Have we met?" she asked A6D, as the man dressed in black shoved Skeppy aside to stalk towards her. "I'm False." 

"No, you're not," A6D spat angrily. "You're Sinner."

False's jaw dropped open, along with Skeppy and Bad's. She stared at the seething man, who drew his sword - but she didn't carry one, and she couldn't possibly know how he could've guessed - 

Her vision flashed to a black-haired woman who stood in front of her, six years ago, when she was thirteen. Who stood in front of a line of ten people, including her son, and told her to _kill_ her, so that her son could live on. And False had - that woman had been her seventeenth kill. They'd wiped the rest of the people's memories and sent them on their way. 

"You killed my mother," A6D snarled. 

"I did no such thing," False spluttered.

"Dude," Skeppy said, jumping between False and A6D. "She was a prisoner in the castle, just as you." 

"No, she wasn't," A6D said, fixing his gaze upon False. "She's Sinner Symmetry." He looked down at the snarling phoenix. "Did you steal her?"

" _What_?" BBH yelped. "Dude, you need to lie down or something. This is Luna, False's moon phoenix." 

A6D glared at False. "You killed my mother." 

"She didn't - " Skeppy started. 

But False looked at the ground. "I did," she said quietly.

A6D's face twisted into a grimace. "See?" he said. "I'd know your face anymore. You may have wiped my memory, _Sinner_ , but I remembered. It took me a while, but I remember your face. I remember you standing over my mother's body, your sword bloody. You killed her." 

Skeppy blinked at her, before drawing his own sword. "You're Sinner?" he asked. 

"I used to be," False said, making no move to attack any of them. She didn't want to. They had every right to make assumptions. "And before Sinner, I was False." 

_Someone is coming_ , Luna warned her.

False looked up at A6D. "Did you make sure you weren't followed?" 

"I - " A6D said, looking surprised. 

The clanking of armor filled the hallway, and the four hermits facing False spun, turning towards the group of soldiers who currently barreled towards them.

"Run," False told Luna. "Run and tell Stress. _Hurry_."

Luna stared at her for a second, before taking off, the flapping of her wings fading into the distance. False clenched her empty hands, wishing she'd brought a sword, or a staff, or anything.

"Did you do this?" Biffa asked her, as the group backed up.

"I did not," False snapped. "I'm running from the Southern Kingdom."

A6D snorted. "Right." 

And then the soldiers were upon them, and False was helpless to watch as the slaughter began. 

There were too many soldiers, and the corridor was too narrow for the four of them to fight comfortably in the confinement. BBH went down first, stabbed in the shoulder, his blood spraying out to join a dozen soldiers already killed. 

And then Biffa went, and then A6D, his sword skittering to land next to False, blood-splattered and gore-covered. 

None of them were dead, but they were dying. And False had no doubt they would die if the didn't interfere. 

The internal struggle that followed could be classified as a war in itself, but eventually, False's common sense won, and she scooped up A6D's dropped sword. 

Skeppy was good, but he wasn't Techno or herself, and he was losing, backing up slightly, all on defense now. 

"STOP!" False screamed, her hand clenching around the sword in her grip.

They stopped. 

Skeppy scrambled back, but his eyes were wary of False now, as he bent down to check BBH's beating pulse. 

The soldiers stared at her from beneath their helmeted faces, their eyes wide. False stepped forward. 

"Sinner," one of them gasped. 

False smiled. "You are...correct." 

"The Black Knight told us to get you," another soldier said nervously. But none of them dropped their swords as False hoped. "He said you'd lost your way."

"If by 'lost your way' you mean _refused to murder an innocent little girl_ that Kian killed anyway, then yes," False snarled. "I have lost my way." She raised her chin to look at them. "You can tell him I said no." 

She raised her sword in front of her face to look at it. "But he already knows that. I don't need you to tell him." 

And with a snarl, False leaped into battle.

It was the first battle, besides the one with Kian, that she wasn't filled with anger and pain and hatred directed at herself. It was one where she didn't _mind_ slaughtering the enemy soldiers. The soldiers in the Southern Castle hated her, and many of them had killed innocent people - just as she had, but they had done it by choice. They were raised like that. 

And they would die like that. 

False ducked a sword swing easily, and kicked someone in the check, cutting someone's throat at the same time. She'd had many practices like this, with people trying to kill her - except she hadn't actually been able to kill them back. 

False remembered Kian's lessons vividly, and even though she hated him - she used them.

Used them to kill all twenty-seven soldiers left, save the twenty-eighth. 

False rested her sword on his neck, but she didn't cut it - she knew him. Recognized him, from one of the many _lessons_ she'd received from the soldiers when she was younger. He was older now, but she recognized the ugly slash across his face all the same.

False threw away her sword. "Go on," she said. "Try to run."

The soldier hesitated.

He ran.

False watched him go, and she took her time bending down to poke among the discarded bodies for a knife that she liked. 

She found one.

And she threw it.

It hit him when he was twenty yards away, directly where she wanted it to - through the back of his head. 

He'd done it to her, multiple times. And he would've killed her, if she hadn't been so light on her feet when she was fourteen. As it was, she only bore scars on her shoulder blades from him - three of them.

False spun around to see Skeppy staring at her, his eyes wide, bending down near BBH. "Is he breathing?" she demanded. 

"I - " Skeppy started, backing up and holding up his weapon defensively - as if that would save him if she attacked him. "I - yes, he is." 

False bent down and scooped up two discarded waterbags, filled, luckily, and she walked over to Bad, who was, as Skeppy said, barely breathing. "I'm not going to kill you," she snapped at the blue-clothed man, who didn't look as he believed her. 

False spilled all the water onto the ground, as BBH's breathing grew strained. 

"What are you doing?" Skeppy asked. 

"Quiet," False snapped. 

She flicked her wrist towards the water on the ground, and it rose in a little bubble, encompassing Bad's shoulder wound, glowing green. False closed her eyes and tried to remember how she'd healed Stress, and she placed her hands on BBH's stomach, feeling the water trickling into the wound. 

"Life," she whispered, rocking on the balls of her heels. " _Life_."

The tree roots around the cave walls wilted, as did the moss and the mushrooms in a thirty-foot radius, and the life magic spilled from the cave walls, green and luminescent. It emptied into the water, turning the water the same green-blue that it had been when she'd healed Stress.

False blew out a breath and _shoved_ the life into Bad, into the wound on her shoulder, healing it and forcing Bad to live at the same time. 

And when Bad breathed easier, when False was sure he wasn't going to die, she stood up on shaky feet and wiped the tiredness away from her eyes, the world spinning. "He'll live," she told Skeppy warily, who'd felt for Bad's pulse the moment she stepped away. "As for the rest of them - they'll live as well."

Skeppy eyed her, standing up, wiping the blood off his blue sweatshirt. "Thanks," he said, but there was a tinge of unease in his voice. "Are you - are you really Sinner?"

"Not anymore," False said with a small, sad, smile. "I used to be, once."

Skeppy tightened his grip on his sword. "You killed so many people." 

"I did," False said, agreeing with the statement. "But I also saved hundreds of lives." 

Skeppy looked confused, and opened his mouth to respond, but a bird call screeched down the hallway, and he spun, turning towards the fire phoenix that bore down upon them.

Techno and Stress jumped off, swords at the ready - but Stress let out an audible sigh of relief when she realized all the sigh of relief, and she barreled towards False, catching her in a hug.

"I'm glad you're safe," the brown-haired girl breathed. "I was so worried."

"Nice job, Skeppy," Techno said, clapping Skeppy on the shoulder before bending down to check A6D and Biffa, both of whom were merely unconscious. 

"I - it wasn't me," Skeppy spluttered, jabbing a finger at False, whose arms were still wrapped around Stress. " _She_ did." 

"What?" Techno asked. 

False hugged Stress tighter, refusing to answer. 

"She's Sinner," Skeppy said quietly. 

" _What_?" Techno roared. He turned towards False. "You are?"

False nodded. Slowly. 

Techno addressed Stress. "And you knew?" he said angrily. 

"Of course," Stress said, spinning towards him - but she stood by False's side all the same. "But she is my friend before she is that murderer."

False heard the twang of the bow before it happened. Before an arrow shot towards her, and she was too much in shock to move, or to catch it before it hit her. 

Glacier _roared_ in the background, and Stress shrieked.

The puddle of the water near BBH froze, a giant ice stalagmite popping so fast that False barely had time to react - but it was solid ice, and it caught the arrow in the tip of it. 

False melted the ice without a second thought, catching the arrow as it fell towards the ground. Next to her, Stress looked shocked, but she didn't move as Glacier bounded over to her, spreading his blue-white feathery wings and curling around her legs. 

"I told you if you betrayed us, I'd shoot you," Etho said coldly, drawing another arrow. 

Techno pushed the arrow downwards, away from False and Stress. "You're mages," he said.

Stress nodded for both of them. "I'm an ice mage," she said. "And False is a water mage." 

Techno looked shocked. "We haven't had an ice mage in a very long time," he muttered. "Who did you say your parents were again?"

"I'm an orphan," Stress said. "We are orphans." She pointed at False. "Nobody in our village has parents - except, Cleo, apparently, who's the princess of the South. But before that, none of us knew." 

On the ground near Techno, A6D blinked open his eyes, focusing on False. " _You_! You did this!"

False raised an eyebrow. "If by this, you mean murdered the soldiers - yes, I did." She held up a finger, cutting across A6D. "If you mean I led them here - no. No, I didn't. And I didn't wipe your memory either. I'm a water mage, not a memory mage." 

A6D snarled at her. "You still killed my mother."

"I did," False shot back. "And by doing so, I single-handedly saved your life. Why do you think you were allowed to go free?"

"Because I'm a good escape artist?" A6D said. 

"No, you're terrible," Skeppy said. 

"Not the time for this," Techno warned both of them. He turned back to False. "As for you - "

"You're not killing her!" Stress said furiously. 

Techno rolled his eyes. "No. I wasn't going to." He eyed A6D. "She killed a group of soldiers, saved Bad, according to Skeppy, has a phoenix, and is a non-corrupted mage." 

"Water wasn't black," Skeppy agreed. 

"She killed my mother!" A6D argued. 

"And she said that in doing that, she saved you," Techno went on. "Even if she is Sinner, perhaps...she could be useful. We won't kill a phoenix rider."

False raised an eyebrow. "Won't? Or can't?" 

Techno shrugged at her. "They couldn't." He gestured around the room. "I'd have to try a bit harder." 


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Death

**_False - Eight years of age_ **

_False grinned as she hit Iskall on the back with a stick, raising it in triumph. "I win!" she called gleefully, as Iskall got back up with a grumble._

_"Yeah, yeah," Iskall said. "No need to gloat about it."_

_False winked at him. "I'm the greatest~," she sang._

"She sounds like you, Techno," Skeppy said. 

Techno glared at him. "Quiet," he said. "You're ruining the memory mage's concentration." 

_Suddenly, soldiers were upon them, one of them grabbing False's arm. She kicked at him, but he only laughed._

_"Hey!" Iskall said angrily, but when he ran up to punch at them they only kicked him away. "Give me back my friend!"_

_The soldiers ignored him._

_False screamed and kicked and cried, tears pouring down her face, but she couldn't do anything against the bigger, older, soldiers. Couldn't do anything but bite at them in vain as they walked through Hermitville and tore through the houses._

_Stress was thrown onto the ground near False, tears pouring down her face as she too kicked at the soldier who held her._

_Cleo was next - and False expected them to take more, but they grabbed False and Stress and Cleo and dragged them away, down the road._

_The other hermits watched with horror, because they were too young to do anything but watch._

_"Let me go, you jerk," Cleo snarled._

_They only laughed._

_Because they were children - what could they possibly do?_

* * *

**_False - Six months later_ **

_False stood at the entrance to the gates, as the other fifty-seven girls trickled out, all of them throwing meaningful glances at False._

_"You're coming too, right?" Stress said with trembling lips._

_False smiled. "No," she said finally. "I'm not."_

_Cleo eyed False, giving a small nod as False threw her a look. The orange-haired girl grabbed Stress's arm._

_"NO!" Stress squealed, fighting Cleo, tears pouring down her face. "You have to come home!"_

_"I will," False promised softly. "I will, one day."_

_She waved goodbye to her friends, one final time._

* * *

**_False - Ten years of age_ **

_"Useless bitch," the queen screamed, slapping False across the face where she knelt across the floor._

_False squeezed her eyes shut against the pain, trying not to cry. Crying just meant more pain._

_"You are supposed to be the heir!" the queen shrieked. "Do better."_

_"I'll try," False muttered._

_"Do so," the queen hissed. "Or I'll go to your little village and kill all of your childhood friends."_

* * *

**_False - Twelve years of age_ **

_She held a dagger in her hands._

_She was twelve._

_An older man was in front of her, and False could count ten people behind him._

_From beside her, the queen crossed her arms. "Come on, Sinner," she groused. "Kill him. Or I'll kill all of them."_

_False looked up at the older man, holding the dagger in her trembling tiny hands. She moved closer._

_"You can do it," the old man said kindly. He tapped his chest. "Come on. Set me to rest. You can do it."_

_False sobbed._

_She couldn't._

_The queen sniffed disdainfully and snapped her fingers at the guards behind her._

_The creak of bows was all False heard as she squeezed her eyes shut._

_And when she opened them, all eleven were dead._

_The queen threw her in a cell, that day, one that she would be in with one meal and one cup of water per day for the rest of the week._

_False could barely reach it, her leg chained to the floor. But she did, day after day._

_And when the queen stalked and took her out, she handed her another dagger and directed her at another group of people._

_And again, False could not do it._

_And again, she was put in the cell for another week - except this time, there was food every two days, not one._

_And when the queen handed a starving and crying False the dagger for the third time, False was able to do it._

_At the age of a dozen years, she was able to end the life of a person._

_It was her first - but it certainly wouldn't be her last._

_She was twelve, but she was still a child._

* * *

**_False - Thirteen years of age_ **

_Her moment of rebellion. False threw down her dagger and refused to kill the young mother._

_The queen snarled at her and threw her into the cell once more._

_False was used to the treatment._

_When they brought her the food on the second day, she brought herself to crawl towards it._

_But inches before touching it, False was stopped by the much shorter chain. Horror and bile filled her as she stretched her hand - and came up short once more._

_False sobbed as she wrenched at the chain, sores popping open once more on her foot._

_But she couldn't reach it._

_She couldn't reach it._

* * *

**_False - two months later_ **

_False stood in front of another mother, the same damn knife in her hand, her heart heavy. She had to kill the woman - or everybody behind her would die._

_The woman looked at her with begging eyes. "Please," she said. "It's not your fault. Save them. Save my son."_

_Sometimes they begged her not to die, and it was far easier killing the selfish ones than the ones like these - the people who_ deserved _to live because they were selfless and good._

_False killed her anyway._

_And the people behind her, though mind-wiped, walked free._

_She was thirteen, but she was still a child._

* * *

**_False - Fourteen years of age_ **

_"This is Kian, Sinner," the queen said, her painted red lips curving up devilishly. False stared up at the older boy, her heart thudding in her chest as corrupted magic seemed to_ radiate _out of him. "He's going to be your partner in your...excursions."_

_False didn't like that._

***

_She trained, now. Trained to fight. Fought Kian and dozens of guards - fought for her life, sometimes, when they fought to kill and she only had a blunt wooden sword to help her - she dodged until the queen called for a halt._

_She always watched._

_She watched when False lay on the floor screaming in pain, clutching whatever wound that had been inflicted on her then, even at fourteen - screaming in pain, curled in a ball, waiting for it to stop._

_It did - but it always came back._

_She watched when the guards threw knives at her and hit her, she watched when False limped back from her training sessions bruised and nearly broken, and she was there when False woke up in the morning without a broken arm or leg, and she was there to try to squeeze the magic out of False._

_The queen was there when False passed out from blood loss, when False killed people that were brought before her without hesitation, now - killing wasn't the hard part, anymore. If she did it too slow, or even a bit wrong - everybody died anyway._

_To hesitate is to die._

_Sometimes she stared out the window, back towards Hermitville, and wondered if Stress and Cleo were okay, if everything was like she'd left it - if they'd forgotten about her, if they thought she was long dead and buried._

_She was fourteen, but she was still a child._

* * *

**_False - Fifteen years of age_ **

_She stood at the edge of the alter in her white wedding dress, and tried not to cry._

_Kian grinned down at her, but it wasn't a nice grin._

_False couldn't look at him - at anyone in the room, at the spectators in the crowd, or the queen, who smirked in her dress._

_She was fifteen, but she was still a child._

* * *

**_False - Sixteen years of age_ **

_She'd fought her first battle, today. Killed her first opposing soldiers, people with weapons. It'd been surprisingly simple, and False hadn't died while doing it._

_But she hadn't been fast enough, so people died anyway, killed by the queen - women and children and innocent people she could've saved if she'd just been better._

_She was married, now._

_She wasn't a child._

_She was Sinner Symmetry, and the world would remember her name._

* * *

**_False - Seventeen years of age_ **

_She stood at the gates of Hermitville at midnight._

_The queen had made a mistake by forgetting about her home - they'd forgotten about the people who she'd really cared for, not just random strangers shoved into her room and died there._

_But as False reached for the door, she could hear the laughs of Stress and Cleo._

_And she couldn't do it._

_So False turned and walked into the forest._

_She didn't look back._

_She was seventeen - but she was too young to have experienced what she'd gone through._

_She wasn't False anymore - she was Sinner, and the Queen of Hearts and Body Parts had done some horrible things in her days._

_She didn't deserve to go home._

* * *

**_False - Nineteen years of age_ **

_False held onto the cliff by a mere finger, desperately trying to hold onto Stress and the damn cliff all at once._

_"Let me go, False" Stress whispered._

_"No," False said desperately, as she tried to pull her friend up._

_"Let me go," Stress repeated softly. "You can climb up. Let. Me. Go."_

_False stared down at her friend. "I'm sorry," she said, tears pouring down her face as she made a final effort to heave Stress upwards. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry."_

_Stress smiled sadly. "It's okay," she told False. "Tell Cleo I'm sorry as well."_

_Her finger slipped, and False let out another sob as she held onto Stress, pleading, not physically able to let her friend go - to watch someone die before her eyes._

_False stared down at Stress, and then at the fingers that held both of them up._

_And then she -_

* * *

"STOP!" False shrieked, pushing the memory mage out of her head. "Get out of my head." 

She ignored the faces of everyone in the room - of Techno, and A6D, Skeppy, of BBH, Etho, Keralis, Bdubs, and most especially of Stress, who was crying silently. 

They'd all seen it. 

She'd let them see it.

She'd made a mistake. 

False ran out of the room and into the pouring rain. Somehow, in between spilling her life story to the group, it'd begun to rain. The rain melded with her tears as she cried, sitting down beneath the tree in the same courtyard Stress had trained in with Techno.

Luna and Glacier were off flying with Ash, so there was no comfort to be found in her usually-chilly moon dragon - there was nothing.

False brought her knees to her chest and cried. 

She'd killed A6D's mother when she was thirteen - his mother had known that to save the others, she had to die. She'd killed so many people, been in over seven battles against the Northerners - she'd done so many bad things, and so little good.

Footsteps approached her, and False looked up to see Techno staring down at her, holding two practice swords. 

"Hey," the pink-haired man said. He proffered her the sword. "You want to spar?"

False grabbed the proffered sword and tested its weight. It was good enough. 

Techno swung at her, and she just barely ducked to avoid it. He was fast, faster still when he trained with Skeppy and BBH, or Etho, but she knew he'd seen what she could do - what she'd been trained to do. 

Had the sword connected, it could've easily crushed her windpipe, but she avoided it, parrying him as the rain swirled around both of them, the wet squelching of her boots and the panted grunts as they sparred.

But fighting had always been easy for False. That had always been the simple part - in the chaos of battle, to just use what she'd been taught. The hard part had been staring her enemy in the eyes and killed him, even though she so badly wanted to tell him that this wasn't her fault - maybe it was, but False didn't want it to be - that she wanted to be on his side, that she didn't want to kill him, but she had anyway. 

False's tears joined the rain in the puddles, as she neatly rolled away, mud splattering onto her green shirt from the wet dirt.

Techno swung hard enough to probably kill her - had it collided. 

False had to admit he was good. In fact, he was probably just as good as Kian was - and the best part was Techno probably didn't hate her as much as the Black Knight did.

False brought her sword up to block Techno's harsh swing.

The two planks of wood collided - and both swords splintered in two, False's cracking down the middle, and the tip of Techno's flying off.

False froze, and then her foot nudged the tip of one of the weapon stands. She grinned at Techno, whose eyes went to the same thing she did - the swords that hung neatly, under a cover from the rain.

False swept the cover aside and grabbed two slightly-curved swords, the ones she'd always preferred - but these were better because they hadn't been made by a person she hated; by a kingdom she despised. 

Techno managed to lift his greatsword just in time to block both blows of False's weapon. 

"Like I said," Techno grunted, as they both struggled for dominance. "I'd have to try." 

* * *

Stress watched her friend spar with the lord, a soft smile curling onto her face as Glacier landed neatly beside her, shaking off the snow from his wings.

_Ready to show them, yet?_ her ice dragon asked.

"I don't know," she told Glacier, glancing around to see if the rest of the people in the castle were listening to her. But they were too interested to see Techno and False's battle to hear her. "I don't know if _I'm_ ready." 

Glacier chirped. _You will be,_ he told her. 

"Who's ever ready to be queen?" Stress said quietly. 


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry! This one's a little short haha

"So," Cleo said, glancing at Xisuma and Iskall on either side of her. "How...how does one exactly start a revolution?"

"Well, simple," Iskall said. "Just like all the revolutions I've partaken in - actually, I have no idea." 

"Nah," Xisuma said. "Remember, four years ago, when you became the temporary mayor for the day on a bet from me, and then you were all like "Viva la revolution" or something like that?"

"That was a joke," Iskall grumbled. "And it was only on getting more cookies, anyway." He eyed Cleo. "We weren't trying to overthrow the kingdom then."

Cleo sighed and rubbed her face, sitting down on her temporary bed inside the tent the hermits had constructed. "Well, we are now," she warned. "And if we want it to last, we better make sure it's a good one."

"I have an idea," Xisuma said suddenly. "How about we write a letter? To the North?"

"Their royalty is dead," Cleo said tiredly. "I read about it. They were killed early on." 

Xisuma shrugged. "False said wars were going on. They had to fight  _ someone _ ." 

Rowan poked his head inside the tent, his eyes narrowing down on Cleo.  _ Cleo. You can do this. _

Cleo eyed her phoenix, who was, by all accounts, about as big as a cow, now, and wouldn't fit on her shoulder - or on her entire body. His tailfeathers were now two times the length of her, and his wingspan three times larger than her when he spread them out. "I don't know, Rowan," she told him, letting out a breath. "Honestly, I'm scared." 

"Oh, yeah," Iskall muttered. "I forgot the bird could talk."

Rowan's head shifted to the one-eyed man, and he projected his voice into all of their heads.  _ Careful, human _ , he warned.  _ You have but one life _ . 

And with that, Rowan withdrew his head from the tent. 

"What's that supposed to mean?" Cleo called after him.

But there was no response. 

"Ooh, real scary," Iskall said, but there was an edge of fear in his voice - one neither Cleo nor Xisuma commented on. 

"I like the idea of a letter," Cleo said. "A wise man once said - the enemy of your enemy is your friend." She smiled. "We need all the allies we can get." 

Xisuma reached into his backpack and withdrew a book and quill. He dipped the feather pen into ink, before hesitating. "Who are we supposed to address it to?"

"Northern leaders, I suppose," Cleo joked. 

Xisuma frowned, but wrote it down. "Dear Northern Leaders," he said - and then hesitated. "Uh - what now?"

"We would like your support?" Iskall offered, and then shook his head. "No, that sounds too needy. We would like to offer up  _ our  _ support? No - that sounds too desperate." 

"How about - we would like to join forces in the coming war?" Cleo suggested. 

Xisuma nodded. "Sounds good." 

"And then," Cleo said, pondering for a bit. "And then - "

* * *

_ Dear Northern Leaders, _

_ We would like to join forces in the coming war. You will need someone to sit upon the Southern throne one day - and who better than I, the princess of the South? I have spent merely two weeks in that castle, and I find it despicable - the rulers may be my mother and father, but they are not the people I was brought up around. I was raised in a village far to the south of even the south, with no parents, with merely my friends and the guardians that moved on.  _

_ My family, if that's what people deign to call it, killed my friends, False and Stress. They may be my mother and father, but I would rather kill them than live with them. Sounds a little harsh, I know, but...my friend was tortured there for nine years before she escaped. I have known my friend for far longer than I have known the king and queen, and I trusted her with my life - even if she did not know it.  _

_ She is gone now, killed by the very person that we all fight against. We. Together. The Southern people, though oppressed, would not stand for a ruler from the north. Who would better sit on the throne than I, Clementine Evalangine (though I do not prefer that name)?  _

_ Please, listen to me. You do not know me, and I do not know you - but if you are reading this, and you wish to help me regain the throne, and to overthrow the pitiful rulers that sit on it - then meet me at the edge of the Southern Lake in one months' time. It is near enough to the Remoa Mountains so that you can make it, and close enough so I can too. There is a cave there where I would like us to meet. _

_ Sincerely, _

_ Clemintine Evalangine _

_ aka Cleo _

* * *

Cleo watched the messenger bird fly off into the night air as Iskall released it. 

"What if someone gets to it before any Northerners do?" Grian asked, stepping up beside her. 

Cleo shrugged. "We cannot fight a war without an army," she said softly. "They have an army - and I have a rightful claim to the throne." 

"One of those puzzle pieces is bigger than the other," Wels snorted. 

"And yet to complete the puzzle, all of the pieces must fit," Joe said softly, clapping Cleo on the shoulder. 

From his curled position near the edge of the trees, too big to fit among or in the tents, Rowan raised his head and chirped his agreement, ruffling his wings as he shifted back into his sleeping position. 

Cleo watches the bird disappear from sight, hoping that the cardinal direction  _ North  _ would be enough to get it to find someone. "I can do this," she said softly, clenching her fists. "I can do this."

Cleo squeezed her eyes shut. "I can't do this," she gasped out. 

"No," Iskall said gently. "You can't do this  _ alone _ ." 

"I shouldn't be asking this from any of you - " Cleo started.

Doc snorted. "Oh, spare the theatrics," he said, drawing the broadsword that rested across his back. He plunges it into the ground, drawing the attention of everybody around him. "I've been wanting to rebel for a while." He snorted. "Stealing kids away from their beds - that's not something a good ruler, or even a mediocre ruler, does. And - " he breaks off, and then says in an even quieter voice. "They killed Stress and...and False." 

"Well," Grian said. "You know, she didn't stay dead the first time. So  _ maybe _ ..." he trails off optimistically. 

Mumbo elbowed him. "Yeah, except last time, nobody actually saw her die. This time - " He cuts himself off as almost every hermit around him glares at him.

Cleo swallows past the lump in her throat, forcing herself to speak. "I know, Grian," she said softly. "We all want them to be alive. But it's simply not possible. Nobody can breathe underwater, or simply survive that long underwater." 

"She has - had water magic, though," Zedaph pointed out. 

"Yeah, and she told me herself that she'd only found out about it months prior to coming into Hermitville," Cleo said. "Not enough to create an air bubble for hours upon hours. And what about Stress?" She shrugged, trying to blink away the tears forming at the corners of her eyes. "Don't hope where there is nothing to hope about." 

"You can't just give up!" Grian said angrily. 

"Maybe  _ you  _ should have stood there, then," Cleo seethed. "Maybe you should have stood at the edge of the lake and watched them fall, and then watched the surface of that damn lake and never see it move, never see two figures pop up - you should have stood there, then, as helpless as I, as two of your best friends died while you could do nothing but watch it happen." 


	21. Chapter 21

"False," Techno sighed. "Is it really so difficult?"

False gritted her teeth as Luna moved away from her yet again. "Come on, Luna, let me onto your back. Don't you want to fly?"

_ I can fly just fine without your stupid weight on me _ , Luna sniffed. 

_ Luna _ , Glacier warned, ruffling his feathers to adjust to Stress, who sat perfectly fine, upon his white feathers. The two phoenixes were about as big as bulls, now - though not as big as Ash - and Techno had deemed the birds healthy enough to ride on. 

_ What?  _ Luna said, swinging her head to look at Glacier.  _ She'd slow me down _ . 

Techno facepalmed from his position on Ash's back. "Really good bonding, False," he told her warily. 

"It's not my fault she won't listen to me!" False said angrily, as Luna moved away from her yet again. 

"She's not  _ supposed  _ to listen to you," Stress told her patiently, adjusting her pink fluffy jacket. "You're supposed to be companions. Equals."

_ Doubtful _ , Luna snorted. 

"Yeah, right," False said at the same time. 

Techno rolled his eyes. "At least you two can agree on that," he grumbled.

Ash finally decided to step in.  _ Luna _ , he said to the moon phoenix.  _ Don't be like that. You two are bonded for a reason.  _

"Yes, because we work so well together," False muttered, crossing her arms. 

But as Luna always did when Ash stepped in, she backed down and let False clamber onto her back. 

_ Ugh _ , the moon phoenix said unhappily.  _ You're heavy. _

"Are you calling me fat?" False asked her. 

_ Yes _ . 

Stress laughed lightly as Glacier walked over, the ice phoenix pecking Luna gently on the side. 

"At least I'm good at fighting," False sniffed. 

Luna spread her wings.  _ I'll show you being good at something _ .

"Wait - " Techno started. 

But Luna launched herself into the air, and took False with it. 

Instead of being horrible, or like she was going to throw up, False clenched Luna's feathers, trying not to rip any now, squeezed her thighs, and held on, laughing, as Luna barreled upwards - up, up, up, the early morning grounds of the castle fading into mist as she let out a loud laugh - 

_ You enjoying this?  _ Luna asked, sounding surprised, as she twisted her navy-colored head to stare at False, who was both grinning and trying not to fall to her death at the same time. 

"No!" False called over the roaring of the wind, as Luna straightened out, suddenly. They were just below the clouds, now. "You're a horrible flier!"

Luna chuckled in False's head, and then went into a steep dive that nearly sent False flying off the phoenix's back, as gravity seemed to slow, and she was nearly thrown off as Luna tucked into her wings and dove. 

Down, down, down - down past Techno and Stress, who were climbing up far slower than Luna had, shooting past both of them - and then the ground came into view - 

"LUNA!" False screamed, tightening her grip in terror. 

The phoenix chuckled and straightened out seconds before she turned into a pancake - and then spread her wings and stopped midair. 

False went flying forward into the castle wall, just barely getting her feet out in front of her before she went headfirst. Her legs creaked as she dropped to the ground, panting, and Luna landed gently beside her, turning her head around and preening the feathers False had upended in the ride. "Why, you - "

Glacier landed beside Luna, and Stress got off hurriedly, running over to False. "Are you okay?" 

False glared at Luna, who pretended to ignore her. "Oh,  _ I'm  _ fine. But there's a certain chicken who won't be, in a few seconds."

_ Downgraded to chicken, have I?  _ Luna said, and though she couldn't smirk with her beak, False could almost hear her smirk. 

"It's an upgrade from pigeon," she retorted.

Ash landed in a flash of red feathers on the other side of Luna, Techno sliding off, eyeing False. 

"That was horrible," the pink-haired man commented. 

"Oh, sure, blame  _ me _ ," False said angrily. "Don't blame the oversized ostrich."

_ Excuse me _ , Luna said, choking.  _ Ostriches can't fly.  _

False crossed her arms, scrambling up after pulling some stones out of the dents in her knees and elbows. "Yeah. Neither can you." 

_ Luna _ , Ash chided, unfolding a wing and flicking Luna gently.  _ You can't do that _ .

_ I can do whatever I want _ , Luna said. 

_ There is a war to be won,  _ Glacier reminded her.  _ We will have to fight in it, whether you like it or not. There is a reason your egg was hatched, by whatever magic was chosen. Our time has come _ . 

Luna sniffed.  _ What if I don't want to? _

False rolled her eyes. "Oh, and you think  _ I  _ do? I've had enough war to last a lifetime." 

_ Then why fight?  _ Luna asked her. 

"Because I wasn't fighting because I wanted to," False told the phoenix. "I was fighting because I was forced to. And that's not something you should ever fight for."

Skeppy skidded outside the door, holding a letter in his hands. BBH followed him out, running after him. "TECHNO! TECHNO!"

"What." 

"You don't sound very excited," Skeppy said, taken aback. 

"I'm not," Techno deadpanned. 

"Oh my goodness, Skeppy, just give him the letter," Bad said. 

"No," Skeppy said.

"Okay," Techno said. He clambered back onto Ash. "False, Stress, get back on Luna and Glacier, please."

Stress clambered back on Glacier excitedly, and Luna - surprisingly - let False climb on as well.

"Wait!" Skeppy said after a moment. "This is really important!"

"I'm sure it is," Techno said, his voice dry. Ash spread his wings to fly. 

"It's from a Clementine Evalangine," Bad said, crossing his arms. 

False froze, turning towards Stress. Both of them were off their phoenixes in an instant, False first, grabbing the letter out of Skeppy's hands before he could even think to jerk away. 

"Wha -  _ hey _ !" 

False glared at him, and he held up his hands in defeat. Stress hurried over to her, while Techno frowned at them in confusion. 

"Is it - " the brown-haired girl asked, peering over False's shoulder as she ripped open the crumpled note.

"Clementine Evalangine, also known as Cleo," False whispered, clutching the paper so tightly she thought it would rip in two. She scanned the letter briefly, and looked up at Techno. "She wants to start a revolution in the south." 

"Cleo," Stress clarified, looking up to the bystanders around them, which now included Etho and Biffa. "The heir to the Southern throne." 

Wordlessly, Techno slid off his phoenix and held out his hand for the letter. Reluctantly, False dropped it into his outstretched hands, and bounced on the balls of her feet, waiting for a response. 

"You say she's your childhood friend?" Techno asked finally.

Stress nodded. "She actually escaped the castle," she squealed, talking to False. 

"Yeah, and she thinks you both are dead," Techno said, spinning the letter around. "' _ My family, if that's what people deign to call it, killed my friends, False and Stress.'  _ Sounds wonderful."

Stress froze. "We should have sent a letter," she said suddenly. "Oh, why didn't we - "

"I thought of that," False interrupted. "And we can't. The Southern kingdom believes me dead. You and I - but Sinner, more importantly. Kian believed he killed me when he tossed us off that cliff." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw BBH wince. "They could intercept the letter, Stress. They could get information that should be revealed to them later." 

Techno nodded. "You shouldn't reveal anything to your enemies until you have beaten them to a full extent." 

"Is this about the potato war?" Skeppy muttered, rubbing his face. "Don't get him started on that potato war."

"Hey," Techno said. "I didn't get  _ nearly  _ enough clout as I deserved. That thing took  _ months  _ of secrecy, and  _ months  _ of planning, and nobody much cared."

"Yeah," Etho said. "Maybe that's because you spent all your free time on farming potatoes, and not with any of your friends?" He pointed a finger at himself. 

Techno shrugged, glancing back down at the paper. "This is probably a trap." 

"I don't think it is," Stress said.

"No, it probably is," False agreed. 

"You shouldn't go," Techno said.

"We're going to," Stress and False said in unison. 

Techno sighed. "Well, I can't really stop you, can I?" he muttered, looking at the letter again. "It occurs twenty-three days from now. It'll take around two to get there." He pointed at Luna and Glacier, who were playfighting and nipping at each other. "Plenty of time for you two learn how to fly, False." 

"I'm not the one who needs to learn how to fly," False sniffed. 

_ Luna can fly just fine, False, _ Ash said, his deep voice reverberating in False's head. 

_ Yeah, False, I can fly just fine,  _ Luna huffed. 

Ash swung his head in Luna's direction, glaring at her.  _ Don't mock me, little one. You still have much to learn about this world, and False can teach you that. _

False snickered.


	22. Chapter 22

"I bet they never got the letter," Iskall muttered, leaning against the cave wall, tapping his eye nervously. 

Cleo stared at the mouth of the cave, her sword - one she didn't know how to use that well, aside from brief lessons with Iskall and Wels - strapped to her back. Xisuma stood to her other side, glancing up briefly before returning to whatever he was doing staring at the floor. 

At the back of the cave, Rowan lay curled in a ball. He was bigger than a horse now, and was unable to lean against Cleo without knocking her over. Cleo had to admit _he_ made a soft pillow, though. 

"I bet it's a trap," Xisuma said finally. "The soldiers are going to come any minute, now."

Cleo jerked her thumb at her phoenix. "Rowan's fine." 

Rowan's head went up suddenly, and he stood up on his clawed feet, his head tilting curiously as he stared towards the entrance. 

A bird cry rang through the air - a cry very similar to Rowans', and then it was repeated twice, from three different sources altogether. 

Cleo covered her hears as Rowan released his own cry, his mingling with the others' in the echo of the cave. "What the hell was that?" she gasped out. 

A phoenix swooped down from the air - a burst of red, orange, and yellow feathers, far bigger than Rowan, directly at the cave entrance. He eyed Cleo with golden eyes.

Cleo gaped at him. Iskall drew his sword, and Xisuma stood up by her side. 

A man slid down from the phoenix's back, with pink hair and wearing a red coat that had a white fir trim at the edge of it. A fake crown rested in his hair - or Cleo hoped it was fake as he adjusted it. A sword rested across his back, and it was a mighty fine sword as Cleo stared at it - she had no doubt the pink-haired man had every idea how to use it. 

Rowan gave a loud chirp, and the fire-colored phoenix gave an answering chirp of his own, and they stared at each other, in what Cleo guessed was silent conversation.

"Hello," the man said. "I'm Techno. You must be Cleo." He eyed her companions. "And, uh - I've never been good with remembering things. You are...?"

Before Iskall or Xisuma could answer him, another phoenix swooped down at the cave entrance, considerably smaller than Ash, or even Rowan. A brown-haired girl slid off its back, and the white-blue phoenix reached down to nuzzle her as she turned towards Cleo. 

"Techno," Stress sighed. "That's Iskall and X." 

Cleo let out a choked sob, frozen in place, as she stared into the brown eyes of her friend. Beside her, she could've sworn that Iskall was a living statue, as he was perfectly still - as if by moving, this could all be broken. 

Stress raised a pink-gloved hand and waved at Cleo. "Um. Hi." 

Cleo was about to rush towards Stress, when a third phoenix landed at the entrance - well, not really landed. The navy-blue and white bird, thinner than the other three, and more graceful, came to an abrupt halt from the descent that it'd been...well, descending into. 

Its rider flew from its back and went slamming into the cave wall, nearly facefirst - if she hadn't spun neatly in midair and twisted to land feetfirst into the wall. 

The blonde-haired girl was up in an instant, shaking her fist at the navy-phoenix. "LUNA!" she shouted angrily. "I'M GOING TO PULL ALL YOUR FEATHERS OUT AND USE THEM FOR PILLOWS!"

The fire phoenix reached over and pecked at the navy phoenix - Luna - but Cleo was too busy staring at the blonde-haired girl, who carried streaks of strawberry blonde from a horrible dyeing attempt. She recognized that voice. 

She _knew_ that voice. 

"False?" she whispered. 

And it was. 

It was False who turned to look at her with brilliant blue eyes, tears tingeing the corners as they stared at each other.

And then they ran. 

Right into each other's arms. 

* * *

It _was_ Cleo. And Cleo had a phoenix too - a forest green one, named Rowan, if the conversation between the four phoenixes were to be convincing. 

"I can't believe you're alive," Cleo sobbed, as False hugged her tightly, and as Stress joined the group, making it into a group hug. The girl had grown since they'd seen each other - maybe two to three months - her orange hair longer than before, and a sword on her back. 

Stress broke the group hug to squeeze the near life out of Iskall, who looked shocked as he hugged her back, tears streaming from his only good eye. 

"You're alive," Iskall whispered. "You're _alive_."

Stress stepped back, propping a hand on her hip. "And you doubted me?"

Iskall opened his mouth, and then closed it. "Well - I...yeah. I thought you were dead." He glared at Cleo. "We all thought you were dead." 

False backed away from Cleo to roll her eyes. "Yeah, well, I thought we were dead too. So, yeah...don't judge a book by its cover."

"I saw you fall," Cleo whispered. "I...I saw you fall into that lake."

False blinked. Well. She hadn't expected that. "Yeah..." she scratched her head. "I didn't really expect to survive either." 

"Enough of all this friendship," Techno said from behind her, making a gagging noise. "Gross." 

False didn't blink a beat. "Ignore him. All he's good for is swinging a sword." 

"Excuse me?" Techno growled. 

They ignored him.

"I thought I killed you," Xisuma said softly, tears in his eyes behind his mask. False smiled sadly.

"Even if Stress and I had died," she said. "It wouldn't have been your fault. You were not the ones that threw us off that cliff." 

"Yeah," Stress piped up. "Also, I wouldn't ever have met Glacier. Cleo wouldn't have Rowan, and False wouldn't have Luna."

False blinked. "Nevermind, it's all your fault," she told Xisuma jokingly. "You can have Luna." 

Luna chirped behind her. 

"Ah, that would make sense," Cleo muttered under her breath, picking at her lip absent-mindedly. "The blue-white egg - that was Glacier. And the navy one - that was Luna."

"You saw the eggs?" Techno asked. 

Cleo nodded slowly. "Behind a portrait...of some people...there was a passageway. And there were the three eggs. I was drawn to them. I touched them. And then it teleported me to the edge of the lake and - " Her voice broke. " - and I saw Stress and False fall."

Stress rubbed her face. "That burst of power, that would explain it..." she murmured. 

"What?" False asked.

Stress flinched. "It's nothing." 

"Well," Techno said grimly. "How about we end this tiring meeting and go to wherever the rest of your friends are?" He gestured towards Cleo. "If you really plan on being a queen, that is." 

Cleo stared him down. "I don't want to," she said finally. "I _have_ to."

False moved towards Luna, who snorted at her. 

_You aren't riding on me, False._

False propped her hands on her hips. "Uh, yeah I am."

_Luna_ , Rowan chided. _It's either that, or we all walk. Don't be stubborn._

Luna swung her head to look at the earth phoenix. _What? No, we can just leave False here._

Stress raised an eyebrow at False, who rolled her eyes. The brown-haired girl clambered nimbly up onto Glacier, and then held a hand out for Iskall, who hesitated. 

_I don't bite_ , Glacier said, for the members of the cave to hear - including Iskall. 

_I do_ , Luna said primly, preening one of her wing feathers into place. 

Ash chirped at her loudly. _We don't have all day, little one. Let the humans ride on your back_. 

Luna huffed. _Fine_. 

She let False clamber onto her back, who turned and looked at Xisuma. "Come on, X."

"I'd rather walk," Xisuma said shakily. "Or, you know - I'll just go with Cleo."

"I'm afraid that's not possible," Techno called over from Ash, as he watched Cleo struggle to get on Rowan's back. "Clementine hasn't ever been riding with Rowan, who has yet to get used to the weight." 

Cleo turned and glared at the pink-haired man, as she awkwardly straddled Rowan, who pecked at her fondly. "Are you calling me fat?"

"...Yes." 

Cleo sputtered indignantly. 

"See, you should've had Techno," False muttered to Luna. "You two are perfect for each other." 

Techno sighed loudly. "Xisuma, your name was?" he asked X, who nodded. "You can ride with me. Luna's a bit touchy."

"A _bit_ ?" False yelped, as Xisuma gratefully made his way over to Ash. "A _bit_ touchy?" 

_Oh, relax_ , Luna chided her. _I wouldn't try to kill you - oh, no wait, I would. Well, I wouldn't want to kill anyone else._

False clutched the navy-blue feathers tighter. "I'm going to die on the back of a pigeon," she muttered. 

_PIGEON?_ Luna yelped. _I'll show you pigeon._

False held on for dear life as Luna shot up into the sky, the lake water becoming a mere puddle as the moon phoenix went through a series of loop-de-loops that had her screaming for dear life. 

_Which way did you say that the camp was?_ Luna asked her smoothly.

"I DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING!" False screamed, closing her eyes as she grasped the phoenix's feathers. 

_Oh, well,_ Luna said, with a roll of her shoulderblades in what could only be the mimic of a shrug. _It's probably somewhere in the forest closeby._ She flew forward a bit, and then looked downwards.

"Wait - "

False's harried words were cut off into a scream as Luna broke into _yet another_ divebomb, heading straight for the forest. False nearly fell off the phoenix's back from the speed in which Luna dove downwards - only to snap her wings out, her clawed feet _breadths_ away from touching the tips of the trees. 

False went flying into the air, flung from the abrupt stop, falling through the trees, the branches and pinecones and needles scratching every bit of open skin she had. 

False landed flat on her back, luckily not headfirst, the breath knocked out of her as she scrambled up, looking up at the phoenix who hovered in the sky. 

"YOU LITTLE RAT!" she screamed. "I WILL LITERALLY RIP YOUR LEGS OFF!" Taking Cleo's words to heart, wasn't she?

"...False?" came a small whisper.

False drew her sword and spun, her golden hair flying in a circle as her eyes went to a sandy-blonde-haired man in a red sweater and bearing a sheathed sword, staring at her widely. "Grian," she said, breathing out a sigh of relief.

Grian stared at her, his dark brown eyes so wide it looked as if his pupils had consumed his irises. "...you - you - "

False sheathed her sword, flipping off the phoenix who chirped above her, not giving Luna a second glance. "Well, do you know where the encampment is? I'm...lost." 

"You fell from the sky," Grian said cautiously. 

"Yeah?" False said warily. "Is that not normal?" 

"Did it hurt when you - "

"Oh, shut up," False hissed. 

Grian laughed and ran towards her, his sword jangling in its sheath as he hugged her, his short stature making the hug more of a child than anything. He looked up at her as she smiled down fondly. "I knew you were alive," he said. "Does that mean Stress is, as well?"

"She is," False confirmed, noticing the tears of happiness that welled up in Grian's eyes. "And she'll be here soon enough - well, not here. Where's the rest of the hermits?" 

Grian pointed towards a random part of the forest. "That way, a bit. I was scouting for...for Dragon Knights."

"What about Hermitville?" False asked, starting in that direction, and finger-combing all the needles out of her hair. Above her, she heard Luna take off angrily, annoyed at the lack of attention that was coming her way.

"Hermitville is gone," Grian said softly, and False froze, enabling Grian to catch up to her long strides. "Cleo - well, she came home. And she said that people would come for us, and we had to leave, but we had to stage our deaths. All of them."

False swallowed thickly. "That - that was the right thing to do," she said finally. "They would've come for you. They would've killed you all, even if you had handed Cleo over." 

"I know," Grian said. " _We_ know." He continued their trek through the woods, jumping over tree roots and dodging around prickle bushes, skipping every so often, like a small child. "We burned it. All of it. And then Cleo...used her magic to make it seemed like an earthquake had swallowed part of it. As if nature had taken its course and won."

False frowned. "Cleo has magic?"

"Earth magic," Grian confirmed. "Like you have water." He raised an eyebrow. "And Stress...?"

"Ice," False said, furrowing her eyebrows as she answered his question. "And...now what? What are you doing here?"

"Organizing a revolution, I suppose," Grian said with a small shrug, a silly grin reaching his face. "I'll check that one off my bucket list."

False laughed. "Along with arson, I reckon." 

Grian laughed. "And treason." 

"And trespassing," False added. She paused for a brief second as a clearing came into view, rows of small green tents appearing in the boring landscape. 

"What are you waiting for?" Grian asked her, pausing beside her. 

"I don't know," False sighed. "It's silly - but I guess I've been proclaimed dead _twice_ now, and neither one was true." 

"And so what?" Grian asked. "You're invincible." 

False smiled fondly at him - but the truth was, she wasn't. She was so far from invincible it wasn't even funny. 

Grian stepped into the clearing first, noticed instantly by Wels and Mumbo, who waved to him. Some of the hermits sat by fires and read and wrote - tinkered with things, did what they would in the village. False guessed some more were scouting like Grian, and even more were probably scouting, as Grian had done. 

"Anything interesting?" Wels asked Grian, barely looking up from the sword he was sharpening. 

"Sure," Grian said. "I guess." 

False squeezed her eyes shut and followed Grian into the encampment, making direct eye contact with Wels. 

He gaped at her. " _False_?" 

She nodded, unable to form words. 

He rushed towards her, stopping at a safe distance away, his sword left forgotten next to the sharpener. "How - how are you alive?"

False smirked. "A little water isn't going to kill me, Wels." She turned to Grian. "Oh yeah. Reminds me. I, uh, met with Cleo and Iskall and X in the cave - they'll be along shortly." 

"Why are you here first?" Grian asked her. 

"Because I have a phoenix who thinks she's in a horse race or something."

_Take that back_ , Luna demanded, apparently hearing her as she landed on the outskirts of the encampment, opposite from False. 

Grian's mouth dropped open. " _Wow_. Another phoenix! That's really cool." 

Luna chirped. _I like him better than you, False_ , she said, her eyes glittering with amusement. 

A loud phoenix cry sounded from above, and False looked up to see Ash descend, followed by Stress on Glacier's back, and then finally Rowan, a scared-looking Cleo holding on for dear life. They landed near Luna, Techno sliding off and offering a hand to Xisuma, who took it and then went to go throw up. 

False made her way through the tents, watching as they slowly opened on either side of her, hermits left and right poking their heads out. She saw Scar and Doc and Jevin and Ren and Python - but there were so many more. People she hadn't seen in _forever_ , it seemed, even though it had only been a few months. 

"How was the ride?" she asked Iskall, amused, as Stress laughed, helping him down. 

"Never again," Iskall groaned, clutching his stomach, and looking towards the bushes Xisuma was loudly retching in. "I don't know how you deal with that crazy phoenix of doom." He gestured towards Luna. "She went _way_ up, dude." 

"And then she went way down," False said, amused. "And then I fell off. Again."

A loud sigh from behind her. False turned defensively to face Techno. "You _fell off_ Luna, again?" Techno asked her.

"It _wasn't my fault_ ," False said. "She stopped abruptly - again, I may add - and I fell like fifty feet through some trees and at Grian's feet." 

_You're just a bad rider, False_ , Luna said. 

"And you're a bad phoenix!" False snapped at her. "You're going to kill me one day."

_That's the goal_ , Luna said, but in a joking tone. False hoped.

"Emergency meeting!" she heard Cleo call. "I have some news!"

"Think we should go?" False asked, winking at Stress. "Nah, it's probably unimportant. Totally not about new developments."

"No, it's about me, right?" Techno said, puffing up his chest. "About how great I am?" 

False jabbed a finger in his direction. "Take it down a notch."

Techno sighed. "Being great is hard."

Ash snorted, his golden eyes gleaming in amusement. _Always the arrogant one, Techno. You'll get killed from it, one day._

"Technoblade never dies," Techno told his phoenix. "Not for a while. Or ever."

False snorted. 

"Oh, you find something funny?" Techno asked her. "Want to - go again?" He tapped his blade meaningfully.

"You won last time because I slipped in a puddle," False sniffed. "It was raining."

Techno rolled his eyes. "Yeah. That's what you're supposed to do. Use your environment to your advantage. That's exactly what I did."

False raised an eyebrow at him. She used her magic to feel for the nearly-dead leaves on the ground, and drew the water out of them, feeling them crumble to compost, or whatever leaves became, at her feet. "I'll show you _water_ ," she snarled. 

The water in her hands turned to snow. 

False felt the ball of water turn into a snowball, and stared at it - and then Stress winked at her good-naturedly, and moved out of the way as she threw it at Techno's face. 

He dodged - of course, he dodged, he could catch arrows as well as she could - but False grinned and, with a small wave of her finger, turned the snowball at a ninety-degree angle so it hit him directly in the side of the ear. It melted, splashing him with water instead of snow. 

False laughed. Stress laughed. 

Techno blinked at her. 

_I'll admit, that one was good_ , Luna told her quietly. _But I never give you compliments. We'll just have to keep this one silent._

"Nah," False told the moon phoenix. "I'll brag about that forever." 


	23. Chapter 23

Stress lay on the back of her phoenix, miles in the air, nearly high enough to touch the clouds, thinking, her hands tucked behind her back. 

"How am I supposed to tell them?" she asked Glacier softly. 

_ I don't know. You heard Cleo's side of the story this morning. She just screamed it at everyone after she destroyed your house. You should try it sometime.  _ A touch of dry amusement entered Glacier's voice.

"You sound like Luna," Stress grumbled, thinking of the snappy phoenix that poor False had to deal with. 

_ I'll take that as a compliment _ . 

Stress sighed. "What am I supposed to say - oh, by the way, I'm the Queen of the North, and I can summon my family crown? They would never believe me."

_ There might be a reason you were placed in that village with the rest of the hermits _ , Glacier reminded her gently.  _ To keep you safe and hidden.  _

"That didn't really work out," Stress reminded the ice phoenix. 

_ It technically did. They took you, but they never found out who you were. Who you could become.  _

Stress closed her eyes in the cold wind and thought of that time she'd woken up in the middle of the night with her entire room frozen, her skin tinged blue - not with cold, she hadn't been cold - and an icy diadem resting on her head that refused to melt until she took a warm shower. It had seemed to glow with an ethereal light as she'd stared at herself in the mirror. Glacier had broken the window when he'd felt her panic. 

But how was she supposed to tell the others that she - some lowly girl from Hermitville - was a princess, just like Cleo? 

She doubted he would take it well. He didn't particularly enjoy ruling - being the best, sure, but not ruling. It apparently came with too many rules to follow and too many people he had to like. He'd said in one of his many conversations to her and False that he'd rather just be a supervillain. 

Stress wasn't really sure if he was joking. He had a flat tone of voice all the time, and it made it impossible to tell if he was being serious or merely kidding. 

"Besides," Stress told Glacier. "I don't know how to summon the crown. Sometimes I think it was a fever dream." 

Glacier chirped.  _ It wasn't a dream, Stress. I was there. Plus, you didn't have a fever.  _

"Merely a dream, then." 

_ No _ . 

Stress sat up and rubbed her eyes, righting herself on Glacier's back. "Well," she said finally. "I'm in the same boat as Cleo, then. Two princesses who don't know how to be princesses. Or rulers. We should probably head back before they get worried, shouldn't we?" 

Glacier chirped in agreement, and turned to fly back over the lake into the camp - but Stress looked down, and saw movement. 

"Wait," she said slowly.

Glacier paused, going into a glide instead, and Stress stared down at the ant-like movement below. As if...as if ants were swarming in a large group. 

"What is it?" Stress asked. 

Glacier looked down, and then flew lower slowly - and slowly the ants came into view.

And they weren't ants at all, but a vast army heading for the Remoa Pass. 

_ Uh oh _ , Glacier said. 

"We have to go," Stress gasped out. "They're going to destroy the North if we don't help them." 

Glacier grimly turned towards camp, flying as fast as he possibly could. 

It took them fifteen minutes to cross the lake and the forest, before Glacier landed outside camp once more. By now, nobody even looked up in alarm - just gave her some nods of recognition. 

Stress scrambled off Glacier and ran as fast as she could towards the command tent, throwing the tent flap open, and nearly tripping on a stray root. 

Techno, Joe, Iskall, Cleo, and False looked up at her, the latter frowning slightly at her late arrival. 

"Where have you been?" False demanded, gesturing at the map that lay on the table. 

Stress waved her off, looking directly at Techno. "There's an army," she said. "Heading north. I think they plan to attack."

Techno stood up, upending his chair. "Of course they do," he groaned, grabbing his scabbard. "I'm here...they want the northern leaders out of the north." He scrubbed his face. "Take out the leaders, and the only thing left are followers." 

"What?" False demanded. "BBH and Skeppy and the rest of them are going to die!"

Techno nodded grimly. "There's a spot in the pass where the path narrows to only four abreast. I plan to stop them there." 

False gaped at him, blocking him as he headed towards the entrance. "Wha -  _ alone _ ?" 

Techno looked at Stress. "I need you to fly to the castle and tell them to come quickly. There are villages and people that will die if they get beyond the pass." He turned back to False. "Yes. Alone, if need be. As long as I possibly can."

False stared at him for a second. "I'll go with you."

"False - "

False cut him off. "What's the chances that Kian is there, Techno? Ninety-nine percent chance he's leading his armies to what he thinks is victory."

"I'm coming as well," Cleo said suddenly. "I have a problem with that guy."

False grinned at Cleo. 

Iskall grabbed his sword as well. "Me too. I need a piece of that guy as well." 

Stress scratched the back of her head awkwardly. "I would too, but...I need to go warn the castle." 

"I'll go grab Wels," Iskall said.

Techno cocked his head curiously.

"He's the next best thing after me," Iskall shrugged. "Besides - " He pointed to the occupants of the room. "There are only five of us that plan to go, and we have - " He looked at False and Cleo. "Two phoenixes that can carry two people and two phoenixes that can't." 

Cleo shrugged. "What about the rest of the hermits?"

Iskall nodded towards Joe. "We need to go -  _ now _ , if we want to catch them. Joe, can you explain to the rest what happened?"

Joe nodded. "It would be my honor." 

Stress grabbed her sword from where it'd lay, forgotten in the corner of the tent, nodded at Joe, who hugged Cleo, and ran out of the tent. 

Wels and Iskall were waiting for them near the phoenixes, and Iskall climbed up on Glacier after Stress, with Wels climbing up after Techno, looking slightly scared as he clutched his sword to his chest.

"Ready?" Techno asked. 

Stress nodded, scared. 

And with a loud chirp, Glacier followed Ash into the air, Luna and Rowan following shortly after. 

* * *

False was scared to admit she was scared. She'd strapped her swords to her back, but she didn't want to fight another battle. Another battle int he seemingly endless war. 

At least this time she was on the side of her choosing. 

False looked over at Rowan, who flew abreast to her, and Cleo looked over and smiled, though there was some fear in her eyes as well.

To hold a narrow passage for however long it took for the North to get there against an army of people - one of which that might include the Black Knight? That was scary. To see people she'd fought alongside with - and hated - to  _ kill  _ them - that was scary. To see her friends die while she could do nothing - that was scary. 

What wasn't scary? 

Killing people she despised. Getting the revenge she deserved. 

"Shit," she said softly, as she peered over the edge of Luna as they flew over the entrance of the Remoa Mountains, looking at the army that swarmed at the entrance. 

For once, Luna didn't say anything. 

Halfway into the pass, Techno slid into a dive, and the other three phoenix's followed Ash's lead, landing in a thin portion of the ravine where only four could stand comfortably. 

Stress was the only one who didn't dismount, though Iskall did, the brown-haired girl hesitating. 

"Go," Techno told her, drawing his sword. "We need backup. The faster the better." 

False drew her swords as well, feeling the sweat gather in her hands as she handed them to Cleo, who gave her an indignant look, and then she braided her hair, taking her swords back. "I'll see you on the other side," she told Stress, forcing herself to smile. 

The ice mage gave a sad smile back, and then Glacier leaped into the sky, flapping his wings as fast as he possibly could. 

And then it was Techno, Cleo, Wels, Iskall, and her - False, to stand against an army that would surely defeat them. Even though they were easily thirty minutes of marching away, False could already barely hear the stomping of boots coming their way. 

"Which other side did you mean?" Cleo muttered, drawing her bow and keeping her sword sheathed. 

False took a deep breath and released it before responding to her friend. "Whichever one it turns out to be." 

"There's five of us," Wels noted, his hands shaking slightly. "Against thousands of them." 

"Right," Techno grinned. "They are  _ so  _ outmatched." 

False rolled her eyes. 

_ Eight of us _ , Luna interrupted from behind them, Rowan and Ash chirping in agreement. 

_ Right,  _ False said internally.  _ Eight against an army. Holding the line so that people in villages can live - so that people can survive _ . She held herself in position, forcing herself not to run and flee and save herself - there was no going back now.

_ I'm going to die here _ . 


	24. Chapter 24

It seemed unending. 

The army had arrived, and they had attacked, expecting to win - win  _ easily,  _ but no, False was here, False and Techno and Iskall and Cleo and Wels, and they  _ would hold it _ , they  _ would _ , they  _ had to _ \- 

False cut through another soldier, backing up and rolling her shoulder in its socket as the body fell to the ground, joining the dozens that were already here. She ducked under Luna's claw as the phoenix reared up and slashed across the helmet of another soldier, melting it like butter. 

Beside her, Cleo fell back a bit as well, switching her sword arms for a second, panting. "How much longer do we have to do this?" the princess of the south asked her, ducking the swing of a mace. 

False shrugged wordlessly, leaping forward to take the head off of a soldier who would've, in turn, killed Iskall. The one-eyed man inclined his head in her direction, exhaustion evident under his eyes, as he stabbed another soldier in the chest. 

_ So many _ . 

She and Techno were the least wary from the battle - she'd fought in many before, but not like  _ this _ , not so few against so many, not this wave of soldiers, not this  _ tsunami _ \- 

"Watch out!"

False snapped to attention at Wel's voice, and dodged an arrow that would've taken her in the shoulder. Shit. She'd been drifting off again. 

"Head in the game, False," Techno said, a maniac grin on his face as he slashed through another faceless soldier. 

"This isn't a game!" False said to him, beheading two soldiers at once. 

Techno shrugged. "Yet I still have more kills than you." 

"Oh, you're on," False said slyly. "Are we talking lifetime? Or right now?" 

Techno snorted as he kicked a soldier in the chest, making him fall back onto his comrade. "Lifetime - no. You would win that one. I'm talking about  _ this  _ battle, here. Right now. Head in the game, False." 

"Head in the game," False muttered. "Head in the game." 

And she lifted her tired head and fought on.

* * *

Cleo didn't know how False and Techno did it - but they were warriors, and she was not. Panting, she ducked behind Rowan to regain a bit of her breath, and found Wels wordlessly handing her a water bottle. Cleo downed the entire thing without a second thought, emptying it. Wels threw her a thumbs up and rushed back into battle. 

How long had they been fighting? Hours, definitely. Maybe six or seven.

_ I can't do this _ , Cleo realized. 

_ Yes, you can _ , Rowan's voice filled her mind, encouraging her.  _ You are a queen, Cleo. _

"No, I'm not," she said, switching her sword hands for a moment and rubbing the torn calluses on her palm, wincing at the sting of pain. "I'm a princess."

_ At heart, Cleo _ , Rowan reminded her.  _ You are a leader because you must be. You will become queen of the south, or we will all die trying _ . 

She was tired. So, so, tired. 

Cleo's eyes went up to the cliff face, and an idea came to mind - a reckless, stupid one. 

She dropped her sword and reached for her magic. 

_ What are you doing?  _ Ash asked her, the older phoenix intruding in her mind.  _ Oh, I see _ . 

Cleo didn't answer, a grimace forming on her face as she concentrated solely on her target - the outcrop of rock a hundred feet in the air, above the tiny, narrow gorge they fought in - 

She fell to her knees as her magic exploded from her, an earthquake shaking the ravine, cracks in the solid wall.

The fighting paused, and Rowan scrambled for better purchase, chirping and flapping his wings as a stray rock hit his wing. Cleo winced, but forced her magic into the walls, shaking the earth harder, praying that a sinkhole wouldn't open up and swallow her friends. 

"What are you doing?" Iskall called to her, swaying on unsteady feet as the ground shook. The soldiers fell over themselves, some clutching the cliff face. Wels grabbed the nearest rock, trying not to fall. 

Techno and False fought on, seemingly unaware of the ground that shook under their very feet. 

A loud  _ crack  _ revibrated across the gorge.

Cleo fell back into a sitting position, gasping, and shifting her damp orange hair out of her face, and watching - watching as the shudders in the earth faded.

There was silence. 

And then the outcrop from the cliff fell. 

She watched it fall, nonchalantly, and False grabbed Techno and rolled, getting the pink-haired warrior out of the way just in time for the huge rock to hit the ground, sending up dust and dirt and tiny particles of rock.

Finally, finally, the earth fell still, the giant rock blocking the gap, and Cleo tried to ignore the blood that seeped from the crushed soldiers, or the already dead ones, some killed by her, half-crushed by the rock. It blocked the passageway a good fifty feet high.

Cleo sighed in relief, and leaned against the wall as False ran over to her. 

"You good?" the blonde-haired warrior asked her. 

Cleo nodded wordlessly, and False gave her a quick hug before running over to Wels. 

"I'm hit," the knight said, groaning as he fell slowly to the ground, blood seeping out of gashes in his armor. 

"I can see that," False said dryly. "You're not going to die." Cleo watched her friend as she took a deep breath, and the grasses in the ground, the ones not already trampled, wilted, the life stolen from them. 

Wels sat up straighter, frowning at False. "Did you just kill grass to save me?" 

False cocked her head at Wels, and hauled him to his feet, bending down and picking up his sword and handing it to him. "Yeah. And the mice in the tunnels below the earth." 

Iskall came over to Cleo and clapped her on the back, as Rowan reached down to nuzzle her grime-stained hair. "Good job." 

" _ My  _ question," Techno said, nearly appearing from nowhere. "Is why didn't you do it sooner?" 

Cleo flushed, looking at her feet. "I didn't think of it," she muttered. 

Techno shrugged, turning to False. "How many did you get?" 

False looked up at him from wiping her swords clean on the life-drained grass. She sheathed them before answering. "Seventy-eight." 

Techno snorted. "A hundred and four." 

False rolled her eyes. "Yeah, whatever. I beat you in the long run." 

"No," Techno shot back. "Total kills, maybe. Now, total  _ enemy  _ kills - "

"Oh, shut your mouth," False retorted angrily. 

"I - "

"Guys?" Wels called over from the fallen outcrop, his bare hand pressed against the rock. "Is it just me, or is this thing hot - and getting warmer?"

False spun, drawing her swords once more. "Get away from the wall," she said. "GET AWAY FROM THE DAMN WALL!"

And the wall exploded in fire and rock. 

* * *

False managed to dive behind a small boulder in the middle of the ravine, but the others weren't so lucky. Cleo was immediately assaulted by red-hot rocks, scorching her face as she tried to cover herself with a shout. Iskall got hit in the head and went down - Wels was blown back by the initial explosion, crashing against the cliff wall, and even Techno was blown back by the sheer force of the magic used. 

Dread pooled in False's stomach as she stood up, her swords in her hand, staring at the man who had his hand outstretched against the previously-there rock. 

Kian. 

The Black Knight.

Her husband. 

The army was behind him, unmoving as Kian and False stared at each other, a tiny smirk on his face. 

Luna chirped weakly from behind her, her wing injured from a particularly sharp rock, as she scrambled to find purchase in the mess. 

"We meet again," Kian said, drawing his sword. 

False stepped towards him, wary of the archers in the army - but they made no move to do anything. She stepped into the debris where the outcrop of rock Cleo had felled had been, passing over the particularly hot coals.

"Nothing to say, my dear?" Kian asked her, raising an eyebrow. 

"I have nothing to say to you," False spat. 

Kian sighed and waved his hand. 

"FALSE - " Cleo screamed from behind her before her voice was cut off by a wave of flames that roared to life under Kian's control, black and red and deadly.

"It's just you and me," Kian said idly. "We wouldn't want anybody else intruding on our wonderful game."

False hissed as she circled him, fighting off the pain in her hands from the small burns on her wrists, the tiredness in her arms, and the pure, flaming heat of the dome of fire that shielded her and Kian. 

Kian shook his head sorrowfully. "What a pity. You were such an amazing killer, you know. So much potential - so much bloodthirstiness." He sighed again. "If only you had been more compliant. Next round, we'll make them less willful."

"There will be no next time," False said coldly, forcing all the anger out of her voice. 

Kian shrugged. "You won't be around to see it, my dear." 

False met his sword in the center of the fiery dome with her own twin ones, their faces inches apart, his mouth opened in a wordless snarl as he pressed down upon her. She spun away, parrying and dodging his next blows. 

Two perfect killers, fighting to annihilate each other. 

False snorted to herself as she aimed a kick at Kian's kneecap, holding back at the final second and kicking up with her other leg. Kian caught her foot in midair with his other hand, and False swung her sword at his head, pushing away from him with a bend of her leg. He dodged it, swinging through so cleanly that False had to bend backward to dodge it, before crossing her swords in an X fashion to stop Kian's blade from cleaving her head open. 

Two perfect assassins, bent on beating each other bloody, until one walked away - or none at all. 

She was surprised that Kian didn't try to burn her alive with fire, but perhaps he had warriors' honor - just a bit. 

And even though she needed the upper hand, False didn't touch the water magic that floundered within her. She needed all the strength she could get. 

False didn't know how long they fought. 

Minutes...hours...it all faded with the ring of steel and the roaring of flames, ones that never burned low, obscuring the sky from view, a smokeless mess of fire that made False's eyes water from the pure heat as she flipped backward, nearly toppling into the flames. 

"I have always been the better warrior," Kian hissed at her, parrying her next blow and tripping her up, so she went sprawling upon the floor. 

"I have always been the better person," False retorted with a huff, rolling to her feet and rolling her neck to remove the rock that was embedded in her skin. She was covered in small scratches and burns - and even Kian showed a little sign of fatigue, their movements slowing just a bit. 

She'd fought for fourteen hours straight, once. But not against Kian - and not with fire around her, not as she gasped for air as Kian's shoulder hit her directly in the chest, knocking the wind out of her. 

And even as she went tumbling onto the ground, her swords spinning away from her, clattering to the ground in a rattle of metal - even as she landed on her stomach, her face in a pile of burned grass - even as she gathered herself to rise to her feet - 

She heard Kian step up beside her. She heard his sigh. 

And she  _ felt  _ his sword as it bit into her lower back. 

And her own scream shattered the stars.

She could've sworn, as the pain dulled, and the heat faded to cold, that she heard a voice scream her name. 

But it was distant. 

And she wanted to rest. 

She was tired. 

So, so tired. 


	25. Chapter 25

She saw the fire, and she extinguished it without a thought - because she could  _ feel  _ it, she could  _ hear  _ False's scream - 

Stress dropped off Glacier's back and hit the ground at a run, the air chilling as she fell, the blue sky becoming cloudly, snow falling around her - frozen everything, giant icicles appearing around her as she ran towards that dome of fire, and gave it everything she had. 

Every drop of magic, every hurt she'd ever felt, her love for her friends, her hatred towards the South - all of it. 

Towards that damned dome, and False, who lay behind, fighting Kian. 

The light snowfall became a blizzard under Stress's hand, and the small icicles grew into huge ones, melting as it came back to the black fire - but the wind blew harder, and even as the wind whipped around her face, Stress directed all of her force towards that fire. 

The snow was piled around a foot high, now, the walls covered in pure ice, and her hands and feet were freezing - and slowly, slowly, as Glacier roared from behind her, the wall of black fire began to lower. 

Stress gritted her teeth and blew it apart. 

She ran through that wall of flames as it disappeared entirely, ice forming at her feet, the snow blowing almost entirely horizontal, now, but she raised her head and forged on, to the blonde-haired body that lay on the ground, and the man that stood over her, a sneer on his face. 

She didn't have a weapon, but she would kill him,

She would freeze him, slowly, until he died. 

Kian looked up at her, his sneer fading, as she barrelled on - 

And then a dark shape appeared out of the sky, a  _ black  _ phoenix, scooping Kian up by the shoulders as Stress leaped for him, a dagger made of pure ice in her hands - and she missed him.

She missed him, just barely. 

Stress let out a cry of anger as she watched the shape fade into the snowstorm she'd created, and then her eyes went to False. 

False, who lay on the ground, her eyes closed. 

False, whose back was covered in blood.

False, who wasn't breathing. 

Horror climbed in her throat, and Stress lost control of her ability. 

The storm stopped. 

Instantly. 

The snow  _ melted  _ in midair, forming rain for a brief second before it too melted away under the sunny sky. The ice collapsed into water, flooding the area, and making Stress's shoes damp - but she didn't care, she didn't care - 

"Breathe, damn you," she howled at False's prone form, hefting her over onto her stomach. 

Movement at her back. 

Stress turned, another dagger made of ice in her hand, her eyes flooded with tears, but it was only Techno, who caught her wrist, a look of wonder on his face. 

Behind him stood Cleo - Cleo and Iskall and Wels and  _ Xisuma and Joe and Zedaph and Tango  _ and all the other hermits. 

When had they gotten here?

Stress opened her hand and watched as the dagger fell to the ground, shattering against the rocks. Techno let go of her wrist, his eyes going to something just above her head - and when Stress lifted her hand to feel at the top of her head, she felt an icy cold crown, lying there. 

And so she took it off and threw it against the cliff face - it shattered. 

It shattered into a million flecks of beautiful purple and blue and white ice, even as Stress felt the tears roll down her face as she knelt by False, bowing her head over her friend's prone body.

"Breathe," she said softly, fumbling for her friend's neck - and the pulse she prayed to be there. "Breathe." 

And there it was. The faintest beat - but it was there. 

Stress closed her eyes and felt her cheeks overflow with tears of joy.

* * *

She sat under the tree, now, in the Northern courtyard. 

The other hermits had come from the back, with the rest of the fleeing back into the castle. The army - which included Skeppy and BBH and Etho and Keralis and Bdubs, had arrived too late.

Glacier was on the other side of the courtyard, steadily ignoring her, after she'd ignored the rest of them and gone to sit under the tree. He ignored her, but he was there, and he was worried about her. 

False was still unconscious, though the healers were looking at her - they said she'd live, though they didn't know when she'd wake up. Luna was curled outside False's window. She acted like she didn't care, but Stress and the rest knew that she did. 

She heard more than saw Techno plop down beside her. 

"Hey," the pink-haired man offered. "She's stable. She'll live."

"But will she wake up?" Stress retorted. "Will she ever see the sky again?"

Techno didn't lie to her. "I don't know," he said truthfully. "We'll just have to see how the world treats her." He sighed. "I'm sorry, Stress. She's a good person." 

Stress buried her head in her knees and tried not to cry. Again. 

"I have a question." Techno finally prodded at her, when she didn't respond. "About that...thing on your head." 

Glacier raised his head from where he sat, curled, in the corner of the courtyard, and gave Stress a frosty look. 

"What thing?" Stress asked innocently, not turning towards Techno.

Techno sighed. "Stress. Please. The crown. The one you shattered."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Stress muttered. 

She heard Techno shuffle his feet in annoyance. "Stress, we all saw it. Hell,  _ you  _ saw it. And I get the feeling you've seen it before." 

Stress wrapped her arms around her body. "Yeah, well. It's just some stupid crown." 

"It's not some  _ stupid crown _ ," Techno exclaimed angrily. "It's the crown of the Ice Queen. The last one was three hundred years ago, founded by a girl just like you. Unless it's a fake - "

Stress snorted, interrupting Techno. "Trust me," she muttered. "It's not fake. It's a stupid accident that wasn't even supposed to happen."

She felt someone grab her arm, and turned to face Techno, his brown eyes sparkling with amazement. "It means  _ you're  _ the long lost princess," he said reverently. "And you and Cleo were placed together for a reason."

Stress stood up suddenly, tugging her arm out of Techno's grip, a cold breeze flaring around her. "I know I'm the princess!" she screamed in annoyance. "I just...I don't to be." 

She turned away from Techno's fallen face, and ran towards Glacier, tears streaming down her face. In the doorway of the courtyard, she saw Cleo with wide eyes - but she ignored the orange-haired girl and climbed up on Glacier's back. 

"Please," she begged the ice phoenix, as Techno began to run after her. "Take me out of here. Get me out of here."

And even though Glacier was mad at her, he climbed to his feet and spread his wings and flew. 

Stress felt, instead of water flowing down her face, frozen droplets of ice. She scrubbed them away angrily.  _ Cleo  _ was supposed to be the one with uncontrollable magic, not her. She was supposed to be the quiet one - the sweet one, not some stupid princess - or Ice Queen, for the matter - she was supposed to - to - 

Stress raised her head and screamed at the clouds as they drew nearer, and they seemed to rumble their agreement as the snow gathered around her, high in the air. Tears slicked her face, frozen tears, cold as steel and sharp as glass, blood joining the ice as it fell to the ground hundreds of feet below her. 

_ Perhaps that wasn't the best way that they could've learned of...this _ , Glacier said softly in her head. 

Stress took a deep breath and closed her eyes as they drew even with the cloud level, Glacier flattening out. 

She wasn't wearing anything but a light pink shirt, and a pair of blue shorts, but the cold didn't bother her. Sure, her fingers were turning purple, and her eyelashes were nearly purple - but she didn't notice, didn't care. 

"Yes," she said finally. "That wasn't the best way they learned. Or the right time, either." Stress wrapped her arms around herself - it was comforting, in a way. Then she asked in a quieter voice, "Is False going to die, Glacier?"

Glacier was silent.  _ I don't know _ , he said finally.  _ But I think it would kill Luna if False did. It would kill a part of everyone. False was - is - an amazing person, and carries the weight of the world on her shoulders. She thinks everything she's ever done has been her fault - and even though she was given the choice to kill people, to save others, she did. It is not my place to say what goes on in False's head, but I...I think that this is more than a battle against her wounds. There are two people screaming at her, one saying that she is innocent against any crimes - that she  _ saved  _ people by killing - and the other is telling her she's a murderer, that she's a horrible person, that she deserved her years of pain _ . 

Stress let out a puff of air, watching the white cloud fade into the clouds around her as Glacier gently slid into a glide. "How do you know all this?"

_ I may be a hatchling, but I know a few things _ , is all Glacier said in return.  _ Also, I listen. I talked to Luna. _

Stress pondered Glacier's words about her friend for minutes, both phoenix and girl silent in the chilly air. 

Something tugged at her chest, and Stress peered over the side of Glacier - but everything below was obscured in clouds. "We need to go down," she whispered, as if in a trance. 

Glacier chirped in question, but Stress shook her head. "We need to go down," she said more adamantly, tugging gently on Glacier's feathers. "There's...something down there."

_ Oh yeah,  _ Glacier huffed.  _ Follow your gut _ . But he went into a dive - not one of Luna's daredevil dives, that usually followed with False's whooping cry - her gut clenched at the memory - but a gentler one. 

Slowly, the Remoa Mountains appeared - the foothills, at least. The real peaks of the Remoa Mountains stretched far into the clouds. Glacier landed with a thump on the ground, and Stress instantly felt warmer in the fall air. She slid off Glacier's back, her eyes drawn to one of the foothills that called to her. 

Called to her. 

_ Where are you going?  _ Glacier asked, eyeing her. 

"Shh," Stress murmured, clambering over the rocks to reach a regular cliff face - it looked exactly like all the others, but something on the other side was pulling at her, tugging at her. Glacier's clawed feet scrambled to find purchase in the mess of boulders and stone. 

Stress stared at the cliff face, looking for something - a door handle, maybe? - but it wasn't that easy. 

_ You can't stand there staring all day _ , Glacier said crossly as he finally reached her, flapping his wings to right himself. 

Stress ignored him, and reached her hand out and placed it flat against the cliff face. 

Immediately, her palm lit up in a glow of white light, and a large rectangle of stone  _ disappeared  _ \- as if it'd never been there. Torches sprung to life in the dusty passageway, by magic - as if people hadn't been there in a very long time.

Stress stared with wide eyes at the stone passageway. "Woah," she breathed, taking a step inwards. 

_ You can't just go into random passageways!  _ Glacier called after her as she began to follow the cavernous hallway. 

Stress ignored the poor ice phoenix as he followed her, chirping indignantly at her lack of responding. The air was draft and musty in the passageway as if it hadn't been used in a very, very long time. 

But to Stress, it didn't feel unwelcoming. In fact, it was the most welcome she'd ever felt since she was in Hermitville. 

The room opened up into a massive cylindrical room, all made of rock - but massive paintings lined the wall, blocking some of the grey stone. It was lit from a massive - and magical, by the look of it - chandelier that hung in the center of the room casting down light on the table surrounded by three high-backed chairs. In one corner of the room, a bunch of plushy - if dusty - lounge chairs; one white, one blue, and one green. In the corner opposite of it, three huge pillows lay on the ground, in the same corresponding colors.

_ It smells like a phoenix in here _ , Glacier warned warily. She heard him take a long sniff.  _ But it's...old, as if they marked the place, but haven't been here in a while. _

"Odd indeed," Stress murmured, spinning as she reached the center of the room, and watching the grandness. In yet another corner, the third one, a multiple steel chests lay, no locks in sight. In the final corner, three beds lay pushed next to each other, as if three girls had decided to have a sleepover and pushed their beds next to each other.

And yet, everything was covered in a fine layer of dust. 

Stress lay her hands on the wooden table in the center, tracing the lines on the map of the North and the South, wondering idly who used to meet here. 

_ Stress?  _ Glacier asked her. 

Stress spun, her fists clenched, expecting to see someone - but it was only a painting the ice phoenix stared at - a painting of an older girl, with the Ice Queen's crown upon her head, a white phoenix in the background, as the brown-haired girl grinned, her hand outstretched, a large snowflake balancing in the palm of her hand.

"That looks like you," Stress said, walking over and reaching up a hand t touch the phoenix in the background. 

_ Like me?  _ Glacier snorted.  _ Stress - that's you. Older, but you _ .

Stress stared at the girl on the wall - at her brown eyes, the grin on her face - and the crown of ice on her head. She stumbled back, nearly falling. "What the hell...?"

Glacier nudged her with the tip of his wing, pointing towards the two sister pictures on either side of it. Another girl, this one with curly red hair in a braid, rode upon the top of a green dragon, excitement in her eyes. Unlike Stress, she carried a weapon; a bow, but it was slung across her back, not in use. A flower crown lay upon her head - but it was no normal flower crown. 

"That's Cleo," Stress said to herself, her voice echoing in the empty room. 

She knew who the final portrait portrayed the moment she turned towards it. The girl, her blonde hair hanging down her back, was laughing, wearing a green jacket, a red and white striped shirt visible under her clothes. Two swords were strapped to her back, and she and a navy-blue phoenix seemed to be in the middle of a playfight. No crown lay on her head - she wasn't a princess, wasn't a queen - but she was one of them.

_ Some things never change _ , Glacier said reverently, staring at the blue phoenix, who seemed to be an older version of Luna. 

Stress turned away from the older version of False, hot tears dripping down her face, unable to look at her friend's face. 

More pictures lined the walls - pictures of the three of them, together, laughing, pictures of the phoenixes, older, paintings of False fighting, of Stress and Cleo ice-skating, of Cleo in a valley of flowers - of so many more that it hurt Stress to look at. They were all  _ older  _ in the pictures, maybe by around ten years, and they looked so much happier.

"What is this?" Stress asked again. 

"It is who you were, once."

Stress whirled to find a woman in the room, her night-black hair in waves down her back, smiling kindly at Stress. Her skin was tinged blue, and brilliant purple eyes stared back at her. She was beautiful. 

"Who are you?" Stress asked nervously. 

Strangely, Glacier didn't seem that threatened. 

"I am Miracle," the woman said. "And this - this was your home, once, Stress." 

"What are you talking about?" Stress asked. 

"Surely you've seen the paintings," Miracle said. "No - not just here, child. You saw the one in the Northern castle, and Cleo saw the one in the Southern castle. It is why you learned of your heritage." The woman clasped her hands together. "You lived, a long time ago."

"You're telling me - " Stress waved casually at the paintings around the room. "That I'm the reincarnation - of who?"

"That would be correct, my dear," Miracle said with a soft laugh. "You are the reincarnation of the first Ice Queen, just as Cleo in the reincarnation of the first Earth Queen."

"And False?" Stress asked. 

Miracle's smile faltered. "False...that girl is troubling." She sighed. "She is a reincarnation, yes, but who she is...is not who she is supposed to be." Miracle looked troubled as she stared off into the distance. "What happened to her in this life was not supposed to happen."

"You didn't answer my question," Stress said. "Who are you?"

"I am the Goddess of Life, child," Miracle said with a smile. "And I have brought you three back because of the war that threatens this plane of existence." 

"Um," Stress put in. "That war already started."

Miracle shook her head. "The Northern and the Southern war is not the war I speak of. You and Cleo are needed to unite the realms, so you can stand together against the coming darkness. As for False...she has a harder yet journey before she finds the peace she so desires." 

"What is that supposed to mean?" Stress asked. 

Miracle winked at her, and disappeared. 

"THAT'S NOT HELPFUL!" Stress called into the empty room, her voice echoing against the walls. "What  _ coming darkness _ ?"

There was no answer.

* * *

And in the Northern Castle, a blonde-haired girl opened her eyes.


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY FIRST OF ALL - I WAS LOOKING UP FALSESYMMETRY FOR THE STORY (to see if she had any brothers or sisters and stuff) AND SHE USED TO HAVE A PET NAMED LUNA UNTIL IT DIED IN 2015  
> WTF  
> WTF  
> WTF  
> WTF  
> WHAT IS THIS WITCHERY  
> SERIOUSLY  
> LIKE I PICKED LUNA BECAUSE IT WAS RELATED TO THE MOON, AND LUNA IS A MOON PHOENIX (which is related to water, yadda yadda yadda) BUT LIKE  
> I NEVER EXPECTED THIS

The first thing False felt was...dullness. As if something was missing - something important. 

She opened her eyes, raising an arm to shield her face from the bright lights of the open windows. "Where am I?" she muttered out loud.

_ YOU'RE AWAKE! _

False winced as a voice shouted in her head - Luna, of course. "What?" 

A navy blue and white bird head filled her face, Luna's eyes glittering eagerly.  _ You're awake. _

"I didn't know you cared," False said, trying to shake off the feeling that she was missing something important. 

Luna snorted.  _ Of course, I care, False _ , she said gently. 

"FALSE!"

False turned her head to see Cleo rush through the door of the medical room, her orange hair streaming behind her. False smiled blearily as her friend embraced her, nearly knocking her off the bed as she dodged Luna and jumped up on the mattress. "Nice to see you, Cleo." 

"Luna told Rowan, and Rowan told me, and I came right here," Cleo said, her eyes sparkling. "The others are having lunch, come on - we'll surprise them." She leaped off the bed, turning to have False follow. 

False shifted the covers aside. 

And froze.

"What are you waiting for?" Cleo asked her, confusion dancing across her happy face. 

"I can't feel my legs," False said, dread filling her. "Cleo. I can't feel my legs." 

"Oh, fuck," Cleo whispered, a heartbroken expression reaching her face.

False felt tears overflow from her face as she stared down at her legs - ones she couldn't move, couldn't control. 

"It doesn't matter to me," Cleo said gently, trying to console her. "We're still friends."

"It matters to me," False said, letting out a sob. "I can't do anything now."

She felt Luna bump her shoulder.  _ It's fine, False,  _ the phoenix said, kind for once.  _ I'll help you _ . 

Cleo helped False roll onto Luna's back, and then ran out and grabbed some rope. 

"This is so embarrassing," False muttered, as Cleo tied a piece of rope around Luna's back and around her legs so she stayed on. "Honestly, I would rather be dead."

Cleo slapped her across the face. "Don't say that," the orange-haired girl growled. "Don't  _ ever  _ say that. I would rather have you alive and unable to move from the  _ neck  _ down, even if I had to help you everywhere, than have you dead." She reached up and squeezed False's hand. "You're one of my best friends, False. I don't want to ever see you go unless you're an old grandma knitting yarn for my grandchildren." 

Tears stung the corners of False's eyes at Cleo's words, and she used her hands to grip the piece of rope around Luna. She could  _ feel  _ the weight of her legs...but they were unresponsive. No pain, but no feeling. 

Luna followed Cleo out of the medical room, going far more carefully than she ever had before. False was used to using her thighs to stay on the phoenix, and nearly fell off multiple times as her hips slid to the side and she had to use the motion of her waist to straighten herself. 

As they were crossing the courtyard, False looked at the tree in the center, where Stress and Rowan usually lay - reading a book, taking a nap, or practicing her magic - but nobody was there. "Where's Stress?" she asked, a bit of horror in her tone. 

"Oh, don't worry," Cleo was quick to respond. "She's fine." The orange-haired girl hesitated. "She...ran off a few days ago, and came back looking shaken. She refused to say what happened - or that anything in general happened, but I know her." Cleo shook her head slowly. "She's really interested in old medieval paintings and books about historical figures, now, for some reason. Beats me."

False had no response to that. "Maybe it's a coping method?" she suggested. 

"Oddest coping method I've ever seen," Cleo snorted.

False smiled. "Nah. Remember when Ren lost his dog when he was seven? And he went around with dog ears for two weeks?" 

Cleo smirked. "No, remember when Xisuma had that month he craved honey and wore those golden-colored clothes?" She laughed. "He looked like someone pissed all over him."

"No," False argued. "Remember when Doc got obsessed with goats and declared himself the 'Goatfather' and carved a rock into a goat?" That had been three weeks before the three of them had been taken - she hadn't actually ever got to see Doc leave that trend of his. 

"What about when Mumbo went around screaming 'HERMIT CHALLENGES' to Stress, Iskall, and Grian?" Cleo snorted. "And he had to dig a giant pit? And Grian had to steal all the doors? And Stress had to run for mayor?"

False was silent, a pit forming in her stomach. "No," she said softly. "I don't remember."

She hadn't been there.

Cleo fell silent, the grin dropping off her face. "Oh. Oh, yeah." 

_ Awkward _ , Luna put in, and False slapped the phoenix's neck, rolling her eyes. 

Cleo led them to a doorway, delicious smells, and voices emerging from it. "Through here," she motioned, and Luna ducked her head and  _ crawled  _ through the entrance, nearly beheading False on her way in.

"Hey!" False complained, rubbing her forehead. 

_ I don't see why the doorways have to be so small _ , Luna grumbled. 

"Maybe you're just getting fat," False said, a small smirk on her face. 

Luna turned her head around, glaring at False.  _ It's almost like you're asking me to dump you off _ . 

False shook her head wordlessly, and if Luna could have smirked, she would have. 

Finally, the phoenix managed to squeeze her way through the doorway and into the enclosed room, where a large table ladened with food sat, comfy chairs arranged around it. Because Luna was facing the table head-on, nobody could really see that False was on the back of it, and Luna got a few waves. 

"Um, can you turn or something?" False said in a soft voice. "So I can talk to them?"

Luna chirped - and then dumped False off of her back. 

She saw it coming, and her thighs clenched - except they didn't, because they were paralyzed. So instead, False went tumbling onto the cool stone ground, groaning at the rope burn that formed on her hands in trying to stay on the back of the phoenix. 

The closest person to her was Tango, and he saw her immediately and jumped up. "False!"

That made the room go quiet. 

False pushed herself up onto her elbows, trying to force herself into a sitting position and failing. "Hi." 

"Luna!"

False felt a strong hand on her elbow, and allowed herself to be tugged up by Cleo, who pushed her into a sitting position. "Luna," Cleo told the phoenix harshly. "You can't do that anymore." 

"False, are you okay?" Xisuma asked her, eyeing her and Cleo oddly as False nearly fell over from her kneeling position, only for Cleo to grab her forcefully by the shoulders and hold her in place.

"Uh..." 

"Yeah, that's the problem," Cleo told the room, as they all stared at her. False blushed from the attention, looking away. She realized that she didn't want to be here. Didn't want to appear weak. 

"She's...uh...paralyzed from the waist down," Cleo finished, when False didn't speak. 

"Oh, shit," Tango said. 

"That's..." Xisuma trailed off. 

"I'm sorry, False," Iskall said, his eyes full of pity. 

False didn't want his pity. Pity didn't do anything. But she couldn't force herself to yell at them, either, because she was sorry for herself too. 

"I FOUND IT!"

False looked over her shoulder to see a pink-cheeked Stress run into the room, immediately stopping when she saw False. 

"Oh! False! You're up! That's great, I have something to tell you all." 

"Up?" False said dryly. "More like...down." She gestured to her legs. 

"That's not funny, False," Cleo said through gritted teeth. "Humor is not an adequate coping method." 

"Yeah it is," False said. "Get used to it." 

"Anyway," Stress said, eyeing them. She waved the book she'd been holding in her hands around. "I found it!"

"...uh, found what?" Techno asked, from across the room, in his position at the head of the table. "You haven't exactly told us what you've been doing." 

"Researching," Stress said brightly, as if that explained it. She turned the book around and held it open. False squinted at it. It seemed to be a small version of a painting of three women - but she couldn't quite make it out. Stress tapped it impatiently. "That's Queen Riarna, Queen Ivy, and..." she hesitated, glancing at False. "...and Ziyah."

"Are we supposed to know who those people are?" Cleo asked dryly.

"It's us," Stress said, gesturing at herself, Cleo, and False. "It's us - three hundred years ago."

There was silence in the room.

"Bullshit," Iskall said weakly. 

Stress shrugged. "When I was out - you know - I found a room that...used to belong to us, I guess. There were paintings of us - of Luna and Rowan and Glacier. But we were older. And then some Goddess named Miracle spoke to me and told me that it was us in our past lives." Stress waved the book eagerly. "Isn't that cool?" 

False's mouth was open. She would've assumed Stress was joking, except she knew that Stress wasn't. She was a  _ reincarnation  _ of some girl that lived three hundred years prior - that had also been a phoenix rider? This was ridiculous. 

"Oh, and I also found a way to defeat Kian," Stress finished nonchalantly. "Anyway - "

"ANYWAY?" Etho yelled, stopping her. "THERE ISN'T AN ANYWAY, STRESS! You found a way to defeat the - the Black Knight?" 

"Yeah," Stress said, tilting her head. "It involves water. Lots of water." She pointed at False. "You can do it."

There was an awkward silence.

"No, I can't," False said miserably. 

"Why not?" Stress said with a small frown. "Look, this time we'll be there with you. You don't have to worry about getting stabbed again. Just fight him for a bit, instead of the hours you did last time, and - "

"I can't, Stress," False said, interrupting her friend. "I can't fight him." 

Stress's frown only grew deeper. "But we a way to defeat him...don't you want to get rid of him?"

False threw up her hands. "Of course I do!" 

"Then why not?" 

"Because, Stress," False said, exhaling loudly through her mouth. "I can't walk." 


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's 4:04 am and I just spent 2 hours writing this.  
> I am not tired in the slightest.  
> Please send mental help.

It was nearly one in the morning, and False couldn't sleep. 

Doc had managed to make her a wheelchair, given materials by Techno - but it wasn't enough. It was comfortable, and it was easier than crawling around, and False was thankful - but she wished she could walk. Her legs were now strapped to the chair by pieces of soft rope, and she was strong enough to wheel herself around - but still. 

She cast her gaze towards the swords that lay in the corner of the room, leaning against the wall by courtesy of Cleo, when she'd first been brought back after the fight with Kian. False looked away from it, and into the blazing fire. She'd never be able to use them again.

Techno swore that they'd get revenge against Kian, and everyone in the castle - and Cleo had shown no qualms about murdering her family. Stress had explained, after a bit of shock, that pure water magic could destroy corrupted fire - but it would be an impossible plan to go with. False had no way to defend herself. 

She was useless. 

False rested her head in the palm of the arm of her wheelchair, as she stared at the fire, trying not to cry. 

She thought she was bad before - she'd thought her skills were bad. 

False knew that she'd taken them for granted.

Or taken walking for granted.

Honestly, who _didn't_ take walking for granted? People were supposed to walk - that was the point of legs. Most animals walked on two legs, sometimes four. What was a human without legs?

What was a fish without fins?

Dead. 

And, of course, Stress was some Ice Queen. Apparently, the dead princess of the North - and she, Cleo, and False were some reincarnation of three dead girls from three-hundred years ago, two of which were queens then, as well - and they shared the same phoenixes, albeit under different names, and in different bodies. Also, there was some rogue _black phoenix_ that had lifted Kian up before Stress could attack him.

It was hard for False to wrap her head around. 

False heard a knock on her door, and she clumsily spun her wheelchair on, wiping the tear tracks off her face as she tried to compose herself. "Yes?"

It was BBH. "Did we wake you up?" the gentle-hearted man asked carefully, sounding nervous. 

"No," False said. "I wasn't sleeping." 

"Can I - WAIT, NO! Skeppy!"

The door flew open, and Skeppy stood there, without his armor, though a simple knife was strapped to the side of his loose pants. His hair was sticking up everywhere, and he had a couple of bandages littered on his hands. He wore the same blue shirt with the silly face on the hoodie, though it wasn't currently up.

Skeppy skipped to False's bed, and sat down, and False raised an eyebrow at him. 

BBH entered the room as well, wearing his red and black set of robes, his hood down as well, pushing his glasses up his nose sheepishly. "Sorry, False. He burst in."

"It's fine," False said, brushing it off. 

BBH turned to his friend, who didn't look sorry at all. "Skeppy! You can't do things like that! What if she - " He coughed. "What if she had been changing, or something?" 

"Yeah, but she _wasn't_ ," Skeppy argued. "If's it's not worth it, don't do it."

"What - nevermind," False sighed, as BBH drew in a deep breath and blew it out in an attempt to remain calm.

"Stop saying that!"

Skeppy threw a teasing grin at his friend. "If it's worth it, do it." 

Bad rolled his eyes and turned to False. "It's just another one of his many sayings."

"You mean like 'ping spoofing, fourteen, the bisectors of the perpendicularity of the vectors, uh oh spaghettio, and BaldBoyHalo?" False said. 

BBH looked surprised. 

"Techno told me _all_ about it," False explained with a wave of her hand. 

"Yeah," Bad sighed.

"You forgot BaldBoyNoob!" Skeppy said. 

"Will you _stop_?! For goodness sake," BBH sighed. 

"So," False said, blinking as she tried to cross her legs and failed. She tried to play it off by scratching her leg, but her leg wasn't itchy. It wasn't anything at all. "Why are you guys in my room at one in the morning?"

"Oh - oh yeah," BBH said, sounding flustered. "We, um, Skeppy, and I, we made something for you." He gestured at her in explanation. "We thought it would help with the whole situation."

"Another wheelchair?" False asked sarcastically.

"Nah," Skeppy said. "It's for Luna and you." He hopped off the bed and walked into the hallway, pulling a large piece of leather and strings into the room. "It's a saddle. So you can fly, still." 

False's mouth dropped open as she stared at the sewed leather saddle that Skeppy stood by proudly. She covered her mouth with her hand, tears overflowing from her face. 

"Are you okay?" Bad asked worriedly.

"Happy tears," False said, wiping them away. "Happy tears. Wow. I - I can't believe you - why?"

"You helped hold the passageway against an army," Skeppy said seriously. "And because of that, you turned out disabled."

"Skeppy!" BBH said, looking scandalized.

"No," False sighed. "He's right. I _am_ disabled." She shrugged, trying to not let the words sink in too deep. She eyed the saddle. "How...?"

Skeppy held up his hands sheepishly, showing off the bandages False had noticed earlier. "We sewed it together. It's not _that_ different from a horse saddle. A bit more straps, and - " he hesitated, looking at Bad.

"My sister is in a wheelchair as well," Bad admitted quietly, and False felt her face soften. "She's fifteen, and loves riding horses, so I knew how to make them. Phoenixes aren't that different from horses."

False studied the saddle. "How did you get the measurements right?"

_I let them measure me_ , Luna said in her head, making False jump as she looked towards the window, which she knew that Luna lay below. She'd thought the phoenix was sleeping, but apparently not.

_I was sleeping_ , Luna said. _Then you woke me up_.

Skeppy snickered, and False realized that Luna was projecting her words to everyone in the room. She felt a small smile creep onto her face at Luna's words. She realized that the phoenix was treating her the same as she always had - with sarcastic words and banter. 

She saw Luna's head poke up in the glass, the shadow illuminated by the moon, the phoenix's eyes glowing in excitement. 

False smiled a half-smile as well - she was sure she'd never be able to ride again. Luna chirped in excitement when False nodded her head, once, and BBH and Skeppy high-fived. 

Skeppy carried the saddle out into the courtyard, and False followed him, pumping her arms to move the wheels of her chair. The grass was a bit harder to get through, but luckily it was cut short, and False managed to push through, as the cool night breeze blew through her shoddily-braided hair. 

Luna was waiting for her, her head tilted in excitement, trilling a chirping song every so often, and ruffling her feathers in excitement. Three haybales in a stack lay piled next to her. 

False frowned as she realized her next predicament. "How am I supposed to get on?"

"Don't move," Skeppy told her.

"Funny," False retorted, and he laughed.

BBH and Skeppy went over to Luna, who surprisingly allowed them to fasten the saddle, and all of its claspings and extra rope, around her. They moved away when they were done, and Luna prowled towards False, who frowned again and undid the bands that strapped her to the wheelchair. "How - " she started.

Luna's head snaked over her head and grabbed the back of her shirt. False shrieked as the phoenix picked her up and unceremoniously dumped her on the stack of hay bales. She choked on the hay and rolled over with a bit of effort, sitting up. "What was that for?"

Luna didn't answer her, only moved her back to the edge of the hay bales, so it was parallel. False felt her eyebrows raised as the saddle appeared in a bit of a drop below her, and she scooted to the edge. Looking down, she could see three different areas of straps - one for the legs, and one for the back. 

_Jump down_ , Luna said gently. 

False took a deep breath and pushed herself off. She landed on her legs, and nearly fell off, grabbing the back part of the saddle in the last moment. False hauled herself on, grabbing her left leg and putting it on the left side of Luna, and did the same with her right leg. She took a deep breath and let it out, before pulling the straps tight and tieing them quickly around her legs. Lastly, False took the back one and tied it around her waist. 

Tears filled her eyes as False felt Luna move under her, and she didn't slip off - as she had before, when she'd just woken up from her fight with Kian, and like she had when she'd first been learning to fly.

"Thank you," she told BBH and Skeppy gratefully, her voice shaking ever so slightly.

Skeppy inclined his head, and Bad nodded at her. "Fly high," he told her softly - almost so soft that False couldn't hear him as Luna raised her wings.

As Luna raised her wings and flew towards the full moon. 

False let out a loud scream of enjoyment as she leaned forward, Luna nearly flying completely vertically, her wings pumping as she lifted False and herself up into the sky. The ground quickly disappeared between the duo, to be replaced with mist and clouds. 

And False didn't slip at all.

Not one bit. 

No, she stayed on the entire time, like she had before, even though this time she had straps to hold her in place - she stayed on, even when Luna did her neat rolls in the air, and went straight down to swoop out of the forest's dark grasp at the last second, False's stomach reaching her throat. 

And perhaps Luna's game of trying to shake False off was over - but that didn't mean they couldn't have fun. 

But it didn't mean False could fight, either.


	28. Chapter 28

Cleo stumbled into the dining hall, bleary-eyed and drowsy. She couldn't sleep after the boatload of information Stress had shoved on her head - and she doubted False could sleep, either.

Actually, she was surprised that Stress had kept it a secret  _ and  _ slept peacefully for that long. 

"Nice hair," Joe laughed, and Cleo glared at him as she finger-combed through its voluminous orange waves. 

She plopped down next to Stress, who looked at her absentmindedly as she popped a piece of sausage in her mouth. "It's fine," the brown-haired girl said, picking a green phoenix feather out of it and tossing it onto the ground. 

Cleo groaned and reached forward, grabbing a plate and heaving some eggs onto it. Across the table, Iskall nodded good morning to her, and she half-heartedly raised her fork in return. 

More hermits stumbled into the hall - some awake, some half-awake. Cleo snickered as Mumbo wandered in - he was certainly not a morning person, just as her. 

She tried to ignore the lack of the chair next to her, where False had had it removed, and the pang in her heart that followed when she remembered the devastated look on False's face when her friend had tried to walk. 

Techno wandered in, looking refreshed, his pink hair perfectly in place, as usual, his cape trailing behind him. "Has anybody seen False?" he asked nobody in particular. 

Cleo shrugged, as did most of the people in the room, though a chorus of 'No', 'Nope', and 'Sorry, no' rang out.

Ash's voice filled her mind, projecting to everyone in the room.  _ She's out with Luna. Has been, for the past seven hours _ .

Cleo spat out her food onto the plate in front of her. "What?" she said, jumping up. "False is with Luna?"

"It's fine," Skeppy told her. "She's just flying."

" _ Just flying _ , he says," Cleo snorted. "That girl is going to kill herself. Mark my words, when I next see her, I'll..." She trailed off from her signature warning. 

"Break her legs?" Joe said with a small cough. He'd often been the victim of  _ that  _ threat. "Yeah. No."

"Don't worry," BBH said next. "I made her a saddle."

Techno turned toward him, frowning at the black and red-cloaked man, who was eating a blueberry muffin. "You made her a saddle?"

"Hey, I helped too!" Skeppy said, waving his hands in the air. Cleo noticed that he had bandages wrapped around a couple of his fingers. 

Techno ignored the black-haired man. "You made her a saddle?" he repeated.

"Well...yeah," BBH confessed. "Phoenixes aren't that different from horses. I have the experience, from Sophie."

From the way Bad looked at the ground next, Cleo didn't ask who Sophie was. She had a good idea. 

Techno shrugged. "Intriguing." He peered out the window. "And...they've been gone for seven hours?" he said. 

_ Yes _ , Ash answered.  _ I felt Luna's call when she left. _

"Oh, they're probably fine," Etho huffed. "You know False and Luna."

"Match made for hell," Cleo grumbled, sitting down. 

Grian shrugged. "What's the worst that could happen? She already severed part of her spine."

"She could  _ die _ ," Cleo said through gritted teeth. 

"She  _ did  _ do that, though," Iskall said, pouring maple syrup on his pile of pancakes. "Twice."

Cleo wanted to scream in frustration. "Why don't any of you care?"

She felt a hand on her shoulder, and turned to see Stress. "Cleo," the brown-haired girl said. "She's been on longer flights than this before. Besides, what are you going to do? Jump on Rowan and scour the skies? We all know Luna is the fastest phoenix here. She could be anywhere." Cleo took a deep breath and let it out. "False can fend for herself."

"Can she?" Cleo asked, raising her eyebrows.

"You can't do that," Stress said.

"Do what?"

"Be protective of her," Stress said. "You wouldn't be this worried about her if she retained control of her legs, yes?"

"Well, yes," Cleo admitted. "But - "

"But nothing," Stress insisted. "False has to deal with her problems, mentally and physically. It will be a subliminal strain for her to wrap her head around her future, and what she will do, because she's never going to walk again. If flying on Luna using a saddle helps her cope, then let her be. I doubt she's stupid enough to go beyond the Remoa Mountains."

Cleo nodded.

* * *

False screamed in frustration as the water magic gathered around the lower half of her body - and failed to take, the water splashing down onto her thighs. 

She couldn't even feel the chill of the mountain water. 

Luna lifted her head from her curled position.  _ False _ , she chastised.  _ Magic cannot fix everything _ .

"But I healed Stress from death!" False insisted. "I can do this."

_ No, you can't _ , Luna said.  _ I bet you that you'll never be able to do that again _ .

False was silent. Luna was probably right. She hadn't even known how she'd done it. "It's not fair."

Luna let out an angry chirp.  _ The world isn't fair, False - most especially to you. You should know this by now. It will be far harder for you to ever find peace than others, some of them our friends. Complaining doesn't do anything. _

"Certainly makes me feel better," False grumbled, leaning back and staring at the sky. 

_ You have every right to complain,  _ Luna agreed.  _ Because you're right. It  _ isn't  _ fair. It isn't fair that you had to stay in the castle when Cleo and Stress could leave. But  _ you  _ made that decision,  _ you  _ gave up your freedom so that many others could walk free. This is a part of you, now, False. Whether you like it or not, this is your life now.  _ She ruffled her feathers.  _ Your loss of lower movement does not make you any less of a person internally. Sure, it stops your physical movements - but since when does that determine one's worth? And for those that think it does - they're wrong.  _

False felt the softness of Luna's feathers curl around her as the phoenix move to wrap around her, warming her from the chill water air. She took a deep breath of the clean air, and let it out, calming herself. 

_ Of course, I think you're less of a person,  _ Luna teased.

False's eyes shot open, and she swatted part of the navy blue feathers that surrounded her. Luna's body shook with silent laughter. "I was starting to wonder if you'd been switched out with another phoenix. Wise words? That's not you."

Luna was silent for a moment.  _ We all change, sometimes. Whether forcefully or on purpose...it depends.  _ She let out a grumble.  _ I've been speaking to Ash too much.  _

False laughed as she sat up, tugging some stray feathers and grass out of her hair. "We should probably get going," she said.

Luna chirped in agreement, and again, False felt the back collar of her shirt be grabbed, and she was all but tossed onto the saddle. 

"We need to learn how to do this better."

_ You need to learn how to land better. _

"Shut up," False grumbled, as she strapped her useless legs into the saddle, and then patted Luna's side in readiness. 

Luna raised her wings and flew away from the mountain stream, gliding gently in the wind.


	29. Chapter 29

**_ Three weeks later _ **

False sat on Luna's back, tapping the side of the saddle impatiently, as she watched the small Northern army gather for one final frontal assault. Cleo was on Rowan's back as well, and Stress on her other side, all of them tense, aware of the coming battle.

The  _ last  _ battle. 

The final stand. 

Over the past few weeks, they'd orchestrated a plan to take the South, under the direction of Techno, False, Wels, and Joe, who turned out to be a master battle strategiest. Iskall had trained Cleo and Stress as best as he could during that time, and False had to admit that both girls improved with their skills in the short time they had. 

She fingered the bow strapped to her back, and the quivers of arrows tightly bound to her sides, made so if Luna were to roll, they wouldn't fall out.

Hopefully. 

She couldn't fight with a sword properly - not anymore. Techno had handed her a bow and told her to learn to use it. That was that. 

Specifically, to learn to use it from Luna's back, when the phoenix was going through her crazy dips and spins - and learn False did. Or tried, anyway. She almost always hit the target. But almost could be the difference between life and death - yet there was no more time to learn. Only time to fight, fight, and live - or fight and die. 

Beside her, Stress's face was white with the smaller sword she had strapped across her back, her brown hair shorn short by her own hands. Cleo had a brave face on - but there was fear behind her green eyes. 

False watched as the hermits and the inhabitants of the castle followed Technoblade's barked orders, climbing on horses and checking their weapons one last time. 

Her eyes flickered to each and every one of her friends - to her new ones, and her old, that sat on horses, that carried weapons to fight against an oppressive kingdom.

One last time. 

Grian, in his red sweater, hefting a green-blue trident in his arms, wiping the sweaty sandy-blonde hair out of his face. 

Mumbo, stroking his mustache, nervousness evident in his eyes. 

Wels, ever the warrior, checking his armor and his weapon as his eyes flickered around the movement around him. 

Iskall, tucking his newly polished diamond eye back into his head, and hefting his diamond sword onto his shoulder as he jumped up onto his horse.

So many more. Zedaph. Tango. Impulse. Joe. TFC. Doc. Scar. Cub. Ren. Jevin. Xisuma. Etho. Bdubs. Keralis. Skeppy. BBH.

There were many faces she didn't recognize. Faceless soldiers who would die in the battle soon to come, and False looked at them and tried to remember - but she knew she wouldn't. There were too many.

And there were many more of the Southern soldier. Four hundred of them, and two thousand of the South. Sure, they might have skill on their side - but what did skill matter against sheer numbers? 

"You ready?" Techno called out to her, as Ash let out a loud chirp.

False nodded, swallowing a lump in her throat as she checked the fastenings that held her to Luna one last time. Beside her, Stress gave a smaller nod, and Cleo threw a thumbs-up into the air, shifting on Rowan's back as she prepared for her green phoenix to take off into the air. 

Techno lifted his sword in his air. "To freedom!"

The small army cheered, and False leaned forward as Luna took off, first, into the sky, the smallest and the fastest phoenix. Ash, Rowan, and Glacier followed after her, but stayed back with the army, as Luna sped ahead, to scout for any surprise attacks high in the mountain pass where they'd fought prior. 

They stayed low, Luna turning her feathered wings to dodge the smaller hills as the Remoa Mountains passed into view - they didn't plan on flying over it. The air was clear, with very little wind, and the fall sun beat down upon False's back as Luna spun to avoid an outcrop of rock in the Remoa Pass. Too high, and they couldn't see the ground. Too high, and the Southern Kingdom might spot them - and they would lose the advantage of surprise. 

Luna quickly lost the Northern army as she sped ahead, and False scanned the ground for people hiding - there were none that she saw. She ignored the burnt patch of grass halfway through the pass, and ignored the tiny spikes of ice that still remained from Stress's rage - frozen so solid they hadn't even melted in the weeks since that fight. 

_ See anything?  _ Luna asked her. 

"Nope," False said, her eyes shifting from the crags to the divots, looking for assassins - because she'd used that technique against the North many times, because sometimes  _ she'd  _ hid in those crevices, leaping out against an unsuspecting army. 

There was nothing.

Though, that could be because the battle tactics were changed - because she, Sinner Symmetry, was on the Northern side, now. It would be extremely stupid to use the same tactics that had been drilled into False's mind. And even though False hated to admit it - Kian wasn't stupid. Cleo's parents weren't stupid. They would use something new. 

Luna's chirp of surprise startled her, as the phoenix threw out her wings and halted from her flight out of the other side of the Remoa Pass, and onto the field next to the lake, where the castle lay. 

"Turn around," False urged, as her eyes scanned the expense of the field - the soon-to-be battlefield. "Turn around, Luna.  _ Now _ ."

For once, the moon phoenix didn't argue with her - didn't even say a word. Just turned and fled, faster than she had come. 

False looked over her shoulder, back at the battlefield. 

At the army, two thousand strong, that stood, in perfect rows, on the field in front of the castle.

And at the massive black phoenix who flew in circles above the army, and at the man who rode on its back. 

* * *

Ash was perched on one of the many outcrops of rock, Rowan circling ahead. Glacier was down with the horses, and False saw Stress talking to Iskall. 

Luna landed next to Ash, the older phoenix chirping at her in greeting. 

"Find anything?" Techno asked her, his eyes scouring the army that traveled below them.

"They're waiting for us," False said tightly. 

Techno turned to her, shifting on Ash's back. "How many?"

"All of them," False said. 

Techno  _ did not  _ seem to like that. "Well," the pink-haired man muttered, rubbing his chin. "We seem to have lost the element of surprise." 

"They definitely know we're coming," False said warily. "But they're just...waiting for us."

Techno shrugged. "You sure none are waiting to attack us from the sides?" He made a pinching motion with his fingers. 

False nodded. "I didn't see anyone. If anyone is there - there's only a few, not an army like I originally thought." 

Techno clapped her on the back. "Good thing is they had to change their tactics because of you. They would have less experience using them." He let out a loud whistle, and Glacier and Rowan flew towards False and Techno. 

"Techno," False said softly. "There...there was something else."

Cleo landed next to False, and Stress landed on Techno's right, a confused look on their faces. 

"There was a phoenix," False said. "A black one. Bigger than Ash."

Techno closed his eyes. "I was afraid of that." 

"Who is it?" Cleo asked. 

"Kian," Stress answered, saving False from uttering the Black Knight's name. "I saw it, earlier, scoop Kian up before I could stab him. I was hoping I was hallucinating." She sighed. "Apparently not."

_ Oh, come on,  _ Luna said.  _ There are four of us, and one of them. How bad can it be? _

_ It's a corrupted phoenix, Luna,  _ Ash reminded her gently.  _ Bad. _

"Very bad," Techno grumbled. "They must have phoenix eggs elsewhere in the castle."

"I didn't see any in that room behind the painting," Cleo offered up. "There must be another stash."

"That's good news and bad news," Techno told them. "It means they have more - which could mean a new generation of phoenix riders - or new corrupted phoenixes." 

False took a moment to take that in, as did Stress and Cleo, silencing falling on the four of them, and the four phoenixes. 

"Well," she said finally. "I guess we've got a second mission on our hands, besides overthrow the Southern reign."

"Right," Cleo muttered. "Besides making  _ me  _ queen."

She didn't sound too happy.

Stress didn't look happy, either - she was the only living heir of the lineage. She would have to be queen, too. Techno had told her that, and False had been present for that nasty conversation.

Neither of her friends wanted to be rulers.

Both of them had to be. 


	30. Chapter 30

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! You get two updates in one day!

Luna circled high above, and False shot arrow after arrow at the army that battled below, wishing she could be down there like Techno and Stress and Cleo and all of her other friends were, fighting for their freedom.

She wished she didn't have to stay up here. 

Luna dived down, suddenly, and False ceased shooting, grabbing onto the front of the saddle as her stomach dropped, as the phoenix darted towards the backline of the enemy army, scooping up one of the enemy mages and carrying him up into the sky - before dropping him. 

False hissed as an earthquake shook the land on the Northern Side, and Cleo dropped back behind Iskall, squeezing her eyes shut as she tried to stop it. After a few seconds, the red-haired girl opened her eyes and the quaking stopped, and the lifted up her sword once more. 

_ Where?  _ Luna questioned False, who halted her arrows as both of them looked for the source of the earthquake, another corrupted earth mage. 

"There!" False shouted over the wind, pointing once again behind enemy lines, at a woman who had her hands literally  _ in  _ the earth, black smoke spewing from it. 

Luna dived for the woman once more, and the mage withdrew her hands from the earth to direct her attention at False and the moon phoenix. Luna swerved to avoid a spike of rock that jutted from the earth, and False drew back her bow and shot the woman in the throat as they passed, hitting her artery. 

They flew back into the sky once more, Luna scanning for mages, and False shooting arrows at the front lines, watching the black phoenix - wait - 

_ Where's Kian?  _ Luna asked her suddenly. 

"DUCK!" False screamed, and Luna followed her directions immediately, rolling to the side and just  _ barely  _ avoiding the sharp claws that descended from above. 

She shot an arrow at Kian as he passed by, Luna flapping desperately to gain some high ground - she was smaller, but faster - but the black phoenix was too big, too  _ corrupted _ \- 

Kian smiled at her coolly, and without hesitance, burned the arrow shot at his face into ash. 

Luna dived towards the ground once more, and False squeezed her feathers, looking behind her at the gaping maw that descended after them, trying to bite, to claw, to  _ kill _ \- 

Luna shot to the side, pulling up mere feet above the heads of both of the armies, and both sides paused to look at the chase that was happening above their heads, as the moon phoenix desperately weaved from side to side, dodging a fireball that Kian shot from behind. 

She flew over Stress's head, the brown-haired girl staring at her with wide eyes. She heard Techno curse as she whizzed past him, but he couldn't help, he was in the middle of a fight, and Ash was too far away.

Besides, if she could distract Kian for long enough, they could win the battle. 

Luna screeched and pivoted in her flight, nearly throwing False off even with the straps as one of her tail feathers was  _ yanked  _ out by the black phoenix's beak. 

False twisted in her saddle, unable to do anything, cursing because she couldn't aim with the straps - of course.

The straps. 

False hooked the bow around her back, her head jerking to the side as Luna pivoted sharply again, the black phoenix lurching forward, aiming for her beautiful tail once more.

Fumbling with the ties, False undid the ones around her lower waist, now able to twist better in her seat to stare at the literal shadow that descended from above, keen on running Luna into the ground as it flew over them. 

"You've got to go up, Luna," False said suddenly. "Up."

_ You. Stupid. Idiot _ , Luna panted in her mind, sounding tired as she pumped her wings, dodging another burst of fire, one that False felt the heat of as it passed by her face.  _ What do you think I'm trying to do _ ?

False didn't answer her as she undid the straps around her left leg, throwing it on the same side as her right leg, until she was riding sidesaddle. She grabbed onto the front of the saddle as Luna flew across the grass, the bristles brushing the moon phoenix's chest.

_ What are you doing _ ?

Again, False didn't answer as she drew back her bow, held only to Luna by a single strap on her right leg, now able to aim properly, and fired at the black phoenix. 

It screeched and dodged, and Luna pulled ahead, just a bit ahead - 

Again and again and again False fired. She missed every single one. 

But Luna was able to find an opening, and whirled around in a flash of blue and white feathers, climbing into a nearly vertical ascent. False was nearly torn off the saddle from the movement, dropping her bow and her final remaining arrow, watching them tumble back to earth. Kian had to dodge the weapons as they fell, and she saw him smile in amusement as she cursed. 

Luna was still climbing vertically when False heard the final strap, the only one that held her to the saddle beside her bare hands, snap. 

The wind roared in her ears, the shouts of battle and the clang of metal against metal were audible - but she heard that tiny piece of leather snap. 

Her legs swung into space, until she was just holding on by her mere fingertips, and all False thought was - 

Was...wow. 

_ I've been in this position before. _

_ Hold on, False!  _ Luna called desperately, but the black phoenix was right behind her as strained to climb higher, higher, into the sky.

False looked over her shoulder, and saw Kian gunning for her. Saw him draw his sword, as the black phoenix nipped for Luna's tail, and the moon phoenix  _ just barely  _ got out of the way - 

She blinked, and Techno's voice filled her mind.

_ Look, I know that people are supposed to expect the unexpected. But that saying's stupid. Do the unexpected, and your opponent won't expect it. If you're against someone you've known for a long time -  _ False had known he was talking about Kian, then, even if he didn't directly name the Black Knight -  _ then do something you would never have done in your time with them. Do something...unexpected. _

"Fly high, Luna," False whispered.

And then she let go.

She pushed herself away from the saddle, and then she was falling, falling past the black phoenix, whose angry red eyes looked surprised as she fell past, and she heard Luna's shriek of surprise as the moon phoenix was unable to return to help her. 

She saw Kian's surprised face as she darted towards him, the gravity dragging her down so fast he didn't have time to react as she grabbed him, grabbed him, and pulled him off the black phoenix - 

And they both went tumbling towards the ground. 

* * *

Stress saw Luna fly by overhead, and then she saw the dark shadow of Kian and the black phoenix as they flew overhead as well, chasing Luna and False across the sky. 

Glacier chirped from nearby, but Stress knew she'd be unable to get to him in time, but she stabbed one of the soldiers, wincing as she took yet another life - she didn't know how Techno and Cleo did it so calmly - and ran towards the ice phoenix as he reared up and scratched another soldier across the face. 

Yet a third soldier swiped at her, and Stress, without thinking, sent an ice spike his way. 

But instead of only hitting him, like she'd intended, because she wasn't thinking, because she was worried for her friend, she sent a  _ wave  _ of ice spikes in his direction, freezing him in the biggest chunk of frozen water - him and ten other men in a line behind him. She winced, and almost said sorry - but after what they'd done to False, after she stories she'd heard, she barged on. 

She heard Luna's shriek across the battlefield.

_ Everyone  _ did. 

She heard the angry shriek of the black phoenix, dark and deadly - 

And Stress turned and saw two figures, wrestling for a sword in midair, falling through the sky. She saw False and Kian as they fell, and she was helpless to do a thing. Glacier leaped up into the sky, leaving her behind as he rushed for False, rushed to save her, but they were too far away - and falling far too fast. 

* * *

Cleo screamed, and the earth exploded around her. 

A sinkhole, much like the one in Hermitville, formed in the enemy army, and swallowed nearly a hundred of them up - but Cleo didn't care as she pushed through the soldiers, as Techno shouted for Ash to  _ grab them  _ \- at the two figures who fell, fighting, in midair - she heard the flap of Glacier's wings as the ice phoenix took off, Rowan and Ash right behind as he wheeled towards False, but he was too slow - 

Luna snapped open her wings, the black phoenix flying past her, and the moon phoenix spun and dived. 

Dived towards her rider, towards False, who fell, who kept falling - 

But they were all too slow. 

They were all too slow. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess I left you guys hanging, huh?  
> Oh, well.


	31. Authors Note

**Authors note:**

  
Hello to all my beautiful readers!

Sorry for leaving you on a cliffhanger lady chapter.

Okay, I’m not really sorry. More so scared. Of you guys.

This next chapter marks the final one...

In the first arc!

Haha.   
  


I never thought that I’d make it this far - this fic was supposed to be 25 chapters AT MOST.   
However, your amazing comments that both made my day and scared me for life made me have new ideas for False’s tale. As you all have probably realized by now, I upload almost daily, except when I’m flooded by schoolwork. Sometimes twice a day, like today (or technically this’ll be the third upload). I will be continuing to do that, so watch out for the updates! I have three arcs planned so far, though the second one will be the shortest one.   
You may all have realized that this world I’ve “created” contains a lot of YouTubers, like FalseSymmetry & Technoblade, whom I feel deserve a lot more attention than they have. They are all amazing content creators - and don’t worry, I have a plethora more people who will join this story! (See if you can guess them 😋)

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my works. It truly means so much to me to see your (haha) heartbroken comments about the story that I have created (though, not really the people).


	32. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have not read chapter 30, please do not read this.

False saw the beach fast approaching as the wrestled for the blade that Kian held, as he kneed her in his chest, and she winced, her fingers slipping on the sword, deep gashes appearing in her hands as she shoved away from him. The beach - 

Water. 

Water. Of course. 

False closed her eyes and drew on the lake, and the water answered her call, pooling into midair into a bowl-shape beneath her - but beneath Kian as well. 

The water saved her, but it also saved him.

She crashed through the bowl of water and landed on her useless legs, crumpling to the ground, soaking wet and gasping. Kian landed in a roll, the water cupping his fall as well, and he came up with his sword. 

Black fire roared to life around them, and she heard Luna's angry shriek and looked up as the fire closed over the sky, the moon phoenix _just_ too late - 

Another damn zone. 

False was too tired to draw on the water in the lake she knew lay on the other side of the fire. She was too weak, too helpless, too _disabled_ to do anything but watch as Kian approached, his sword in his hand.

"You were supposed to die," the Black Knight hissed as he held the sword over her, as False rolled on her side, cursing her useless legs, pushing herself to her palms, looking up at him.

"Yeah?" she sneered right back. "Guess I got...lucky."

He regarded her for a moment. "I'm tempted to leave you like that. In that...useless state of your body." Kian shook his head. "But no. You know too much, and can teach others." 

He raised his blade and swung at her, and False dug her hands into the sand and pushed herself away, the blade cutting into the place where her head would've been. 

She saw the blade descend onto her face once more, and she brought her hands up and caught it, the sharp side cutting into her right palm as she grimaced, the hot blood dripping onto her face. 

_I want to live_ , she thought desperately, as she stared up at Kian's arrogant face. _I_ deserve _to live_.

_Or do I?_

All the things she'd ever done flashed across her mind. 

_No! I've done some good things as well!_

_"Not enough,"_ a voice seemed to whisper in her head. 

Ah. Sinner was back. 

"I _am_ enough!" she screamed at Sinner, Kian's face morphing into confusion as tears poured down her face. 

She wished that she could use her legs so that she could kick him.

She wished she wasn't in this position.

She wished that this war had never happened.

She wished that she never would've gone through what she'd had to in the South.

But then...some other girl might've taken her place, and that other girl probably wouldn't have been able to resist the call of corruption. That other girl probably wouldn't have been able to hatch Luna, to use the power of water and life - 

_Life._

False gritted her teeth and let go of one of her hands, wet blood slipping down her hand as she reached up and grabbed Kian's wrist. 

The Black Knight looked confused for a second. 

She felt the life in him, just as much as she felt the water flow nearby. She felt it, and she felt the flow. 

False gritted her teeth and _drew_ on it, just as much as she drew water. Her nails dug into the side of his hands, cutting into it, tiny pinpricks of blood rolling down his hand as False fought to keep her right hand on the blade that would kill her. 

The life slid from his blood to hers, and the pressure forcing down on the sword vanished as Kian tried to pull away, but she was clamped down on his wrist as she drew on that thread of life. 

She'd drained other threads of life. Trees, grass, even a few animals...but never a human. 

The life force pumped steadily into her, and False felt _full_ \- there was too much of it, too fast, but she drew more, and Kian cried out and tried to pull away - but he couldn't he was growing weaker, he dropped the sword, and the black fire around them flickered. 

The life force gathered around her, healing all her cuts and wounds, winding down into her spine as False drew it -

Ever. Last. Drop.

Her leg cramped, and she shifted it irritably - before realizing what she'd done.

She was healed. 

And even as False let go and stood up on wobbly legs, Kian fell to the floor, an empty, dried husk of his previous form. 

A rumbling sounded in the earth, and False looked down. 

The fire around her flickered out, and she turned to make direct eye contact with Stress - 

Before the earth beneath her collapsed, and she fell, screaming, into the ground. 

She only fell a few feet.

But she fell into a portal, a portal that shone with glowing purple light, surrounded by a black stone with violet flecks - and the portal closed behind her, flickering out - until she was left in darkness, in nothing, except a few pieces of burnt grass that glowed slightly.

She wasn't used to walking. She wasn't used to standing.

It was pitch dark.

False forced herself to her knees, forced herself to her feet, wobbling unsteadily as she squinted in the gloom. 

A torchlight flickered on, and False came face to face with a demon.

* * *

"NO!" Stress screamed, as she felt the earth under her feet rumble - and saw False rise her feet - and then saw her fall into a hole, into a portal that glowed purple. 

The portal snapped shut. 

Stress screamed from her position on the ground, and Luna landed on the ground next to her, her talons scraping the unknown rock that had surrounded the portal - but the moon phoenix did no damage. 

She felt the tears stream down her face, as for the second time in her life, her friend disappeared.

False was utterly alone - again. She'd promised her friend she'd never be alone again. She'd failed that promise. 

Luna raised her head back and keened. 

* * *

Cleo watched Stress fall to her knees in front of the hole in the ground. She'd tried to stop it. 

She couldn't even move a pebble around that area. Couldn't stop False from falling. Couldn't do anything but watch. 

Black feathers rained from the sky.

Cleo looked up and saw Ash tear into the black phoenix's throat, saw Rowan scrape its sides, saw Glacier peck at it - 

Saw the black phoenix explode in a force of fire that blew Glacier and Rowan back, but Ash - Ash was a fire phoenix, and he closed his wings and trilled his song in the sky - 

The black phoenix was gone. 

Soot and feathers were the only things that remained. 

Cleo stared at Kian's body, at the dead-looking body that looked as if all life had been drained from him - 

And then she took her sword and leaped back into battle.

Stress stayed there, at the edge of the pit. 

Stayed there, tears pouring down her face as Techno killed the final soldier before the rest surrendered, stayed there as the rest of the hermits ran over, staring at the place where False had fallen. 

Cleo stood there too, with Skeppy and BBH and Etho and Keralis and Iskall and Zedaph - and stared at the portal, waiting for it to relight.

It never did. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we have the end of the first arc!  
> It wouldn't be an Aria_Cinabun story without a cliffhanger!  
> But don't you wonderful readers worry, the next chapter will, as always, be posted tomorrow!


	33. Arc 2: Chapter 1

He had glowing red eyes, pale grey skin, and two huge black horns protruding from his forehead. 

Yet, he didn't attack her - only stepped nearer. 

False took a shaky step back. "Who are you?" she asked. 

He didn't answer her. 

His torch illuminated the fact she was in a room made of red rock, that she didn't recognize, a single doorway that the demon must've entered through the only way out.

"Who are you?" she asked again, braver this time. 

He reached out and grabbed her wrist. 

False tried to wrench her hand out of his grasp half-heartedly. "Hey! Let go!" 

He grunted and dragged her towards the doorway, and False huffed and let him take her. She had nowhere else to go, anyway - and he wasn't trying to kill her. 

Yet. 

False's jaw dropped when he flung open the door to reveal the hellish landscape of the world through the purple portal. Everything was made of brown...dirt? Sand? She didn't know. Everything was made of the red rock and brown dirt-like substances. Fire burned everywhere, and lava fell from the covered ceiling. Not a single ounce of sky shone through the black-grey rock, and a red haze blanketed the land in the distance. 

A huge castle made of red-purple bricks rose in the distance, its gates a gaping maw of what seemed like death. 

In the distance, False could see what seemed to be humans, like herself, mining with iron pickaxes at some whitish substance that littered the red rock. They looked exhausted and were dressed in rags. Demon guards, like the one that dragged False, littered the area, guarding the miners. Or stopping them from escaping.

The demon guard shoved her into a small hut, through the door, and False nearly fell from the hard push he gave her - her legs were still weak. 

Inside, dozens of heads turned to look at her - humans. People. Some of them looked weary, others defiant. Perhaps fifteen percent of them were women, the others, men. 

On a stage in front of them all, stood another demon, this one with ram-like red horns that curved from the side of his head. His eyes didn't glow, they  _ burned  _ a dark black, and False shivered when she looked at him. 

"Found another one that fell through the portal, boss," the demon who'd found her grunted. 

"Excellent," the demon on the stage purred, rubbings his hands together as he eyed her - almost as if she was a chocolate cupcake. 

She got the feeling she should've tried to escape when she'd had the chance. 

"You all have come here to my master's home," the demon on the stage started. 

"Kidnapped, more like," a woman to the side of False muttered. Her green eyes were dusty, and she looked gaunt and drained. 

The demon ignored her. "My name is Amon, and I will be your host for...however long you deign to remain in our realm." He licked his lips with a forked tongue, and False recoiled heavily, as did some of the people around her. 

"You have two options, dear humans," the demon purred. "You can work in the mines, and  _ not  _ die a horrible death, and after twelve years, we'll let you go." He regarded the group for a second. "Or, you can choose to fight in the pits, and if you win the championships, you and your team are free to go. That is, if you  _ don't  _ die a horrible death, as most of our contestants do." He rubbed his palms together gleefully, and pointed towards a doorway on the left side of the room. "Exit through there if you wish to mine quartz."

To False's surprise, more than half of the room emptied, scrambling through the doorway and to whatever lay beyond. Looking around, there were perhaps fifteen of them left - and she was the only girl. 

But these were normal people, she realized. These weren't heroes, like Techno. They weren't soldiers, like her. They probably had no chance in the so-called fighting pits. 

The demon on the stage stared at her. "You sure you don't want to go work in the mines, little girl?" he asked. 

False snorted, crossing her arms. "Not a  _ chance in hell _ ." 

Literally. She didn't know if they were in hell - but they were damn close, if not. 

The demon shrugged, and jerked his head towards the other side of the room. "Go through there, then."

False sniffed and pushed through the men, some of whom glared at her and made gross faces - all of which she ignored. She pushed open the door and found a hallway leading off into the distance, curving right. As far as she could see, there was no end. 

"Are we just supposed to - " she started, glancing back at the stage. But the demon was gone. 

"Hurry up, woman," one of the men grunted, and False rolled her eyes and started walking.

It was weird, walking. She hadn't done it in nearly a month, and her muscles were weak - but she could walk, she could move her toes and all the joints in her ankles, and she could  _ stand,  _ she could put one foot in front of the other.

After a few minutes of walking, in which False made sure to say  _ far  _ ahead of the others - who knew what they might try to do - she came to another door, and a demon that stood in front of it, glaring at her - a she-demon, specifically, holding a grey pot that she all but shook in front of False's face. 

"Take one," the she-demon hissed.

False wondered if she could attack the demon, but then shook off that thought. She had nowhere to go, anyway - and even if she did defeat the demon, what could she do against an army? At least one of them was good, and she couldn't fight an army. 

Well, she could.

Just not in her current state. 

False sniffed and reached into the pot, withdrawing a small piece of paper. She opened it slowly, and two words were on the tiny scrap. 

_ Lime Llamas. _

"What does Lime Llamas mean?" she asked the demon.

The she-demon regarded her. "You're either really good, or really bad," she decided. "It's your team name. Head through the doors and find the rooms with that name on it."

False rolled her eyes again and pushed open the door, which led to yet  _ another  _ hallway, with doors every dozen feet or so. 

"Maroon Monkeys," she muttered to herself, reading the first door, and starting forward. "Red Rabbits. Orange Ocelots...Apricot Antelopes? Amber Alligators. Yellow Yaks. Golden Gazelles."

On and on and on and on. 

Until she came to a door that read Lime Llamas, about halfway down the hallway, and knocked on the door. 

No answer. 

False turned the handle. 

To her surprise, it turned, and she opened the door to reveal a room that reminded her of the inns she'd stayed at once or twice. 

There was a living room, with two couches, and doorways that led off into what seemed to be bedrooms. Nothing more. 

Just a living room and four bedrooms, and a table in the corner with four chairs. 

False closed the door behind her, and stalked over to the table, sitting down at it. Inscribed in the table was a large T.I, T.D, and a P. Whatever that meant. 

False spun as voices appeared outside her door, grabbing for the nearest thing she could - a fork. 

"New recruits," a male voice that sounded distinctly human said. 

"I wonder if anybody good came from Above," a second human male said. 

"Nah, probably not," the third decided, his voice higher-pitched and younger-sounding. "Besides, they never give us anyone anyway."

The door opened, and False was left staring at three human guys, all of whom stared right back at her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The person that can correctly guess the identities of the three people listed at the end of the chapter gets a cookie.


	34. Arc 2: Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey! Sorry for the late update! I was experiencing some issues related to my power haha  
> You guys get TWO updates today, so make sure to check both out so you don't accidentally skip one!

"Hey."

Stress spun to see Skeppy and Etho in the doorway, the latter looking worried as he walked into the room. 

"Hi...?" she asked, sitting back down on her bed. 

False was gone. She'd been gone for nearly twenty-four hours, now. Cleo had helped uncover the portal, but nothing they did would relight it. 

False was gone. 

She repeated it over and over in her head, refusing to really believe it. For her, this would be the second time. For the rest of the hermits...it would be the third.

"Stress?" Etho asked her softly, and Stress looked up at him, wiping the tears away from her face.

"I need you to talk to Techno for us," Etho said, shifting uncomfortably.

"What? Why?" she asked. 

"He's in a foul mood, and he's less likely to throw something at you," Skeppy pointed out. "You're the sweet one of the group. I doubt he'd throw a knife at _your_ head."

Stress sighed. "He threw a knife at your head, didn't he?"

Skeppy and Etho nodded in tandem.

"I know he wasn't _trying_ to kill us," Etho said with a small sigh. "It's - it's...well, you should hear the story from him."

"What story?" she asked, confused.

Etho sighed again. "Yeah. Exactly."

Stress frowned, but left the room and walked down to Techno's, which was about a five-minute walk. _What could Etho possibly mean? What story did Techno not tell?_ He'd told dozens of stories - specifically about some planting potato war he'd won against another guy. He'd won a few competitions, as well, apparently, with some of his older friends.

_What was he hiding from us?_

* * *

"Who are you?" the first guy asked. 

False tilted her head as she lowered the fork, realizing he wasn't going to try to kill her. The first man had orange-pink hair, and wore a dark navy blue sweatshirt with a leather chest piece over it. A scythe lay across his back. 

The second guy was wearing an orange shirt, a similar leather chestplate over it, with a robin on his shoulder - that was odd. He had brown hair, and a pair of dark sunglasses over his face. He had a golden sword attached to his side. 

The final guy - or boy, she didn't really know, he was around her are - had golden hair, a white shirt with red sleeves, and tan pants. He also wore the same leather chest piece as the rest of his - friends? - and bore a blue sword strapped to his back. 

"I'm...False," she said. She held up the piece of paper, proudly displaying _Lime Llamas._ "I'm guessing you're my new teammates." 

"We haven't had a new teammate in forever!" the man with the sunglasses said, turning to the golden-haired boy. 

"Yeah, what if she's a spy?" the orange-haired man asked. 

"I'm a _spy_ ," False sputtered, gesturing at her body. "Do you _see_ any horns or glowing eyes?"

"I'm blind," the man in the orange shirt said. 

"Oh." 

* * *

"Techno?" Stress asked softly, knocking on the door. "Techno? It's me, Stress. Can I come in?"

"No," she heard. 

She opened the door anyway. It was unlocked.

Techno was on the balcony, Ash curled up on it, sleeping. His sword, which he _always_ wore, lay thrown haphazardly on the bed, unpolished. 

Stress walked onto the balcony, where it overlooked the Remoa Mountains. "Are...are you okay?"

Techno was silent for a second. "Did Etho and Skeppy send you?"

She didn't answer. 

Techno sighed and rubbed his pink hair. "Four years ago, there was this boy. His name was Tommy. I was his hero. His village burned down, and I rescued him. I found that he had some basic skills...and so I offered to train him. He was young, nearly sixteen, but...he reminded me of myself, when I was younger."

She saw his knuckles tighten on the railing. 

"A year later, he went on a scouting mission. He'd been begging to for months - and I finally let him. I would've hated to be shut up in the castle too. But a war was going on, so I didn't send him south, I sent him west."

She saw a small tear drip down Techno's cheek. 

"He never came home. And we found a portal like that in the woods. It disappeared nearly a month later, and we were never able to light it." Techno whirled around to stare at her, his brown eyes full of pain. "I was his hero...and I couldn't save him."

Stress reached out and touched Techno's shoulder. "Hey. I'm sure he doesn't blame you, Techno. He may be still alive out there, wherever that portal leads."

"We're never going to be able to light it, like Cleo wishes," Techno griped. 

Stress inclined her head. "Maybe not. But False has gone missing for eleven years, before - and she came home." She turned to face the Remoa Mountains. "If we cannot go to her, she must come to us. No matter how long it takes, she's still alive." _I hope_. "She'll come back. Tommy...will come home, too." 

"Will he?" Techno asked softly. "He's just a boy. Whatever lies beyond that portal might be too much to handle."

"Then you'll see him when your time has come as well," Stress murmured, barely loud enough for him to hear. "And...maybe that's when I'll see False again as well." 

She could've heard she heard Luna let out a loud keen from the other side of the castle.

* * *

False felt her face turn red at the orange-shirted man's words. That was awkward.

The orange-haired man glared at the man in sunglasses. "Ignore him...False, was it?" He stepped forward. "Hi. I'm Pigicial."

False shook it tenderly, feeling the calluses from the usage of the scythe that hung across his back. "Nice to meet you."

The orange-shirted man stepped forward and held out his hand to greet her. "I'm TimeDeo, but you can call me Deo."

False frowned at the perfect placement of his hand and shook it as well. 

The blonde-haired boy stepped forward last, his aqua blue eyes twinkling in excitement. "I'm Tommy." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, two-thirds of the cookie goes to Writers_Paradise, who correctly guessed Tommy Innit & Time Deo, but mistook Pigicial for Philza. The other third of the cookie goes to Animated_caffinated, who correctly guessed Tommy as well.  
> The cookie is a chocolate-chip cookie. I hope you two are not allergic.


	35. Arc 2: Chapter 3

They sat around the table, the three guys watching False warily, and she could see them itching to pull their weapons out. 

"You're allowed to have weapons in here?" she voiced suddenly.

Tommy shrugged. "Yeah. As long as we don't attack any guards...they let us keep them for self-protection. We have custom weapons made in the forges." He squinted at her. "Why?" 

"Just wondering," False said. She turned to Deo. "How can you fight when you're blind?" Perhaps a bit forward, but she was honestly curious.

Deo lifted a hand up to pet the robin on his shoulder, which trilled. "This is Jerry. Jerry, meet False." Jerry the robin chirped, and False felt a pang in her heart for Luna. "I'm a mage."

False's eyes widened. "Oh! Really?"

Deo nodded. "I'm an animal mage." He stroked Jerry's head. "I can see through Jerry's eyes if I try hard enough." 

"That's cool," False said with a small nod. "I've never met an animal mage before."

Pigicial frowned. "By the placement of your words, I'm assuming you  _ have  _ met a mage before."

It wasn't really a question, and False hesitated, not knowing how much to reveal to people who could murder her in her sleep. "Uh...yeah. From a distance, of course." 

"I'm a mage as well," Tommy said, clasping his hands together. "A water mage."

False nearly choked on air as she fought to keep her face straight. Water mages might be the most common type of mage - but there were many different types of water mages. She had a feeling she was the healing type, and Stress was the ice type. 

"I'm not a mage," Pigicial said, rolling his eyes. "Doesn't make me any less of a warrior."

"Ehhh...yeah, it does," Tommy teased his friend, jostling Pigicial on the shoulders. 

"You from the North or the South?" Deo asked her.

False squirmed in her seat. "...South. From a village in the south-western quadrant. It's right by the Southern Woods." She rolled her shoulders uncomfortably. "You've probably never heard of it." 

The moment she'd said those words, all three of the guys had stiffened. 

"We're from the North," Pigicial said cautiously. 

False rolled her eyes, blowing out a breath of air. "Yeah. So?"

"Well, you probably have heard of the war between the North and the South," Tommy said. 

False nearly rolled her eyes and spit out the fact that she'd fought in the war. But she didn't. "Just because the nobles are enemies doesn't mean that we are. I support the North. I'm not allowed to, but I do. Most of the villages do."

Pigicial frowned. "Why?" 

False licked her lips, trying to find the right words. "Around eleven years or go, they went to all the villages and took girls aged eight through ten. We weren't hit, luckily - "  _ Lie.  _ " - but some of the neighboring villages were. Months later, those fifty-nine girls were delivered back without their memories...and with no information on why they were taken or what was done to them." She shrugged. "I don't think the friends of those girls, or the parents, or  _ anybody _ , really, likes the idea of the Southern royalty stealing children from villages." 

Tommy looked at TimeDeo. "I...I did hear about that," he said. "But I thought it was boys."

"The boys were taken two years later, and they were twelve, I believe," False said, leaning back in her chair. "The same thing happened. They returned with no memories." Except for Kian, of course. 

"Well, that sounds horrible," Pigicial muttered. "They could've done  _ anything  _ to those children."

False threw him a look. "Exactly." 

Deo all but slammed his hand down on the table, startling False. "Look, we aren't here to talk about our life from Above," he said. "We're here to survive. I've been here for four years, Pigicial three and a half, and Tommy three. Our team was fine before you came along." He held up a hand as False opened her mouth angrily. "I'm not saying you're a bad fighter. I haven't seen you, yet. Or well,  _ Jerry  _ hasn't seen you fight, yet. But they usually add people to teams who are lacking, or - " Deo cut himself off. "Oh." 

"Oh, what?" False demanded. 

"Handicap," Deo said. "In the quarterfinals, and the last grouping, it isn't a team fight, but a one-on-one fight." He ran a hand through his hair. "They're probably going to choose you, just so we lose."

False felt insulted. " _ Excuse  _ me? Are you saying I would lose?"

"Unless you've trained with Technoblade, we  _ all  _ have a chance to lose," Tommy said dryly. 

"Whatever," False said. She  _ had  _ trained with Technoblade - and beaten him, every one out of three fights. 

"What's your experience with a sword?" Pigicial asked her.

False hesitated before answering, Techno's words coming to her mind when he'd been training her - not in battle strategy, but in mental strategy.

_ Make sure your opponent underestimates you. That will be their downfall. There is a time for arrogance, and there is a time to minimize your skills, so that the others don't know what you can and can't do. If you give it everything you've got first try, they'll know your limits, if they are smart enough to look. _

"I...know a bit," False said. "I fought monsters in the Southern Forest." She tried to sound proud of it, but came up short. 

Tommy snorted. "We're doomed."

False rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I bet you all were born warriors, right out of the womb. If you're so good -  _ teach me _ ." 

Tommy sat up straight in his chair, a grin coming across his face. "I got a years' worth of training with Technoblade - "

"Oh, god, not him again," Pigicial. "You go on and on about how he's your best friend, Tommy." 

Tommy shrugged. "I mean - "

"He's never talked about you," False said. 

They all turned to her. 

"What?" Deo asked. 

"I mean - I'm assuming he's never talked about you," False said, trying to cover up her slip. "You'd have been what, twelve three years ago?"

"Twelve?" Tommy sputtered. " _ Twelve?  _ I'm eighteen! I was fifteen!" 

"Whatever," False said. 

Deo pushed back his chair and stood up. "Well, let's go test your  _ swordsmanship,  _ then," he said. "See if you're as good as you think you are."

_ I am _ , False promised them silently, as she got up alongside Tommy and Pigicial.  _ I'm not who I seem.  _


	36. Arc 2: Chapter 4

The training yard was an arena, one that Tommy told False that they fought in. Every week, they'd have a fight - except when the Championships came around, once a year, and each sector - there were four - fought to come top of their sector, and then fought each other for victory. 

It was usually to death, but sometimes the other teams were lenient. 

"Whenever we fought and lost," Pigicial told her, as she was selecting a weapon. "The other teams never killed us. We were lucky enough for that." 

False felt the eyes on her - she was new, after all, everyone wanted to know what she could do. Beside her, Pigicial picked out a sword made of iron, and after a second, False chose a slightly curved blade she knew would be quick and light, but deadly. 

"Don't you have a scythe?" she asked him, as they walked back over to Tommy and Deo.

Pigicial made a face. "Yeah, that's only for the actual battles. Wouldn't want to wear it out or anything." He stepped out into the dirt arena, which sang with the sounds of metal against metal, wood against wood, and the grunts of people. 

There were at least four other teams of four or five out here, False realized, as she glanced around, tightening her grip on the sword. 

"Relax," Tommy told her, smirking. "Nobody's going to jump you."

"You're a guy," False retorted. "Of course you'd say that."

Deo sighed. "He means nobody's going to jump you with  _ us  _ around." 

"Thanks," False said dryly, leaning against the wall in their little corner - it wasn't much of a corner, as the arena was oval-shaped - but it'd do. Glancing up, she saw the hundreds of empty benches that she guessed would be filled with spectators - if she ever survived to fight a round. 

"False," she heard Pigicial say, and she nearly jumped, her sword coming up in front of her inadvertently. Pigicial frowned at her reaction, as she lowered her sword, blushing. "Care to step out onto the battlefield?"

False raised an eyebrow as she stepped forward, tying her hair into a high ponytail with a small piece of leather she had wrapped around her wrist, and swung her sword, testing the grip. She nodded. 

There were far too many eyes on her. Far too many, for, if she performed well, they would be wary of her. 

False gritted her teeth as Pigicial approached her. 

_ Make sure they underestimate you. That will be their downfall. _

She made sure to parry his first half-hearted swing - she didn't want to appear  _ awful _ . That would be too far. Her team would hate her. 

But the next time, she parried him, she saw his leg come up to knee her chest - and thought she could've easily stopped it, she didn't. 

And though she could've fought through the pain as his knee collided with her thorax, as she'd done it many times before, she made sure to drop her sword and let out a loud gasp as the air wheezed out of her. 

She made sure to drop to her knees. 

And she hid a silent smile as the spectators turned away from her disgustedly. 

"Eh," Pigicial said, shrugging and offering her a hand up. "You could be worse."

"Yeah - she could be better, too," Tommy pointed out. 

False huffed and pointedly ignored Pigicial's hand, standing up on her own. "Yeah, well,  _ Tommy,  _ not all of us have the experience to train with Technothepig or whatever his name is."

"Technoblade," Tommy sputtered. "His name is  _ Technoblade. _ " 

False waved him off, hiding another smirk. "Whatever." 

"You don't  _ whatever  _ Technoblade," Tommy said. "He's the best fighter...well,  _ ever _ ."

"I doubt that," she said. 

"Okay, well he's the best fighter  _ alive _ ," Tommy conceded. 

"Yeah, sure."

"No," Deo interjected. "What about the Black Knight?"

"He's dead," False said offhandedly.

" _ What?"  _ all three of the guys said at once. 

"Yeah," False said. "Technoplane, or whatever his name is, led a revolution against the South. There was a battle...literally around seven hours ago. I watched it from the trees. It's how I fell through the portal." She smiled sheepishly, feeling sick from the half-lies. "The Black Knight is dead."

"I bet  _ that  _ was an epic battle," Tommy said dreamily. "Technoblade vs. the Black Knight..."

"Actually," False said. "The Queen of Hearts killed him."

" _ What?"  _ Deo said. 

False nodded. "Yep. And it really wasn't much of a battle, from what I saw. There was a lot of - " She wiggled her hands empathetically. " - black fire. Didn't really see the fight." 

"But...Sinner is evil," Pigicial said. 

"There are two sides to every story," False told him. "I saw what I saw. I saw her kill him. I saw him die. I saw her emerge victoriously." 

"Yeah, what if you're lying?" Deo pointed out. 

"That's a really stupid thing to lie about," she said. "It could  _ so easily  _ be proven wrong." 

"Fair enough," Tommy conceded. "If we ever get out of here." 

False didn't answer that. 

* * *

It was immensely difficult to pay attention to Pigicial's lessons. She wasn't saying he was a horrible teacher - he was fine - but...she knew everything he was walking her through. She had to pretend she was ten, again, when she didn't know anything about fighting. 

And pretending she was nine years younger was a pain. She barely remembered  _ not  _ being able to fight, that sometimes her instincts took over and she accidentally did something that someone of her supposed skill level shouldn't have been able to.

Pigicial called her lucky, clapping her in the back when she ducked a swing that she shouldn't have been able to see, because he'd been trying to prove a point when she'd 'stupidly' asked him about speed. 

_ Yes, _ False decided.  _ Playing dumb is hard.  _

And now they were eating dinner in the mess hall, with the rest of the twenty-something teams separated on the benches. False picked at her spaghetti half-heartedly - it didn't taste good, but it didn't taste  _ bad,  _ either.

She didn't have that much of an appetite.

Tommy crunched into an apple loudly, drawing False's attention. Deo and Pigicial ignored him - must be a common occurrence. 

"Why are you eating an apple at dinner?" she asked him.

"Why are you not eating?" he retorted. "Besides...apples, am I right?"

"No," False said. "You're not right." 

Apples. Stress had grown apples in the orchard, and she felt a small smile creep onto her face as she remembered stealing them...back when Hermitville hadn't been burned. Back when she'd been Sinner.

"Hey," Tommy asked her suddenly. "Why are you smiling?"

She looked at him. "Am I not allowed to smile?"

"That's not what he meant," Deo told her. "You know it."

False sighed and leaned on her left hand, twirling her fork in her hand. "My friend used to have an apple orchard. Before everything changed." 

"Ah," Pigicial nodded sagely. "Thinking of home."

_ It's not my home, not anymore, and hasn't been for years,  _ False thought, biting back the words. "Yeah. I guess."

Pigicial put a hand on her shoulders. "You two might not remember it," he told Tommy and Deo sternly. "We all went through this stage. Remembrance...acceptance...it comes with time."

"Well, that time better come soon," Deo said a bit harshly. "The Championships start tomorrow. And this year, I plan to win." He got up, leaving his tray behind, and walked out of the hallway. 

"Don't mind him," Tommy said, as he too got up, taking both his and Deo's tray in his arms. "He just wants to get out of here."

"Don't we all," False said sarcastically. 

She stayed in the dining hall long after Pigicial left as well, pondering the memories that poured through her head.


	37. Arc 2: Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Had to republish this because of some issues, haha!  
> (The next chapter will be out in ~3 hours, I was just fixing some things that needed fixing)

False clutched her sword tightly, standing in the back of the diamond Tommy, Deo, and Pigicial formed as they stood in the arena, the benches filled with cheering demons and sullen-looking miners. 

She hated it.

Hated the noise as the demons pitched the humans against each other, hated that she was forced to stand in the back because she 'wasn't skilled' - that she had to hide her abilities. 

Well, she didn't have to. She _chose_ to - because she knew that it would benefit her in the long run. Because they would underestimate her, and she would beat them every _damn_ time. 

The opposing team was the Purple Pandas - a group of four men, from maybe mid-twenties to late thirties, three of them bearing swords and one of them an ax. 

"Four against four," Pigicial said under his breath. "We got this." 

False let out a breath. 

Tommy had explained to her the rules of the championships earlier - there were twenty-four teams in their sector, apparently, and they would fight six of them. The other teams would each fight six fights as well, and those that won the most games would go forward to be in the top four. If there was a tie, the two teams that were tied would go in an extra fight, and the winner would go forward. 

The four teams would break off into two groups, and one person from each team would be chosen to fight waves of monsters. The two longest-surviving teams would move onto the finals, where they would fight - presumably to the death - and the winners would...well, win the Championships, and return to the Overworld.

Most people only knocked the opposing team out. 

Monsters, however, tended to kill. 

Pigicial had his scythe clutched in one hand - he called it the 'Reaper Scythe' for some reason. Tommy had his Aspect of the Dragon - whatever that meant - and Deo had his Midas sword. 

The only one she understood was Deo's, because his sword shimmered a gold color. And she got that the Reaper Scythe was a _scythe_ , but...

Whatever. 

It's not like she even had a weapon. 

Her weapons - the twin swords she'd used as Sinner Symmetry - were in the corner of the room in the Northern Castle. Honestly, she was glad to be rid of them. She wanted a new pair of swords; ones that didn't carry such a heavy blood price behind them.

The cheering of the arena died down to a pregnant pause, as everyone spectating collectively leaning forward to see what was about to happen.

"Tommy," she heard Pigicial say in a low voice. "Water."

False's eyes were drawn to the barrel of water that sat at the side of the arena, near the middle. She'd felt it when she'd first entered, but...she hadn't thought to comment on it. Water felt _normal_ to sense - she felt it Above all the time. In the trees, the grass, the lakes, and the many springs...water was everywhere.

But down here, she guessed it was precious. And since Tommy was a water mage, just like her, though she suspected he was purely water, and not lifeforce like she was, he would have a hard time using his magic. 

"I can't sense it from over here," she heard Tommy say back. 

She frowned at that remark. The water was barely twenty yards away. "Why's your range so low?" 

"You try being a water mage, False," Tommy snapped back at her. "I need a _teacher_ to become good."

False didn't comment on that. She very well _could_ teach him, she guessed...eventually. She didn't fully trust the three of them yet - no need to give them more power before they were on her trusted list. Perhaps a bit harsh of her, but they would ask her questions if she revealed she was a water mage as well. 

She didn't like questions. 

Jerry the robin took off with a soft chirp, flying off Deo's shoulder to circle from above. 

Still, neither of the eight contestants moved. False knew she could stand like this all day - she had, once, for twenty-four hours, in heavy armor. It couldn't be that difficult. 

Luckily, the other team grew antsy.

The center man, who was wearing an oversized leather chestplate and carried an ax, charged with a loud roar that almost hurt False's ears because she'd been listening so keenly for people to sneak up behind her - instinct, pure instinct, from her years in the forest - and the three other guys followed him.

Tommy decided to rush as well, switching places with Pigicial so he was nearest to the water, veering towards it. Deo met the man with the ax head-on, Jerry flying around the duo as they fought.

False followed Tommy, sprinting past him as he raced for the water - she saw his surprised face as she beat his full-on run, but she could make up an excuse for that - and raised her sword and parried the man who'd been rushing for Tommy. 

One of them clashed with Pigicial, and one of them battled with Deo - and she fought one of them, leaving the fourth to...

Charge her.

False cursed.

Fighting one and _trying_ to fail was easy. Fighting two, trying to stay alive, _and_ pretending to be bad? That would be hard. 

She pretended to slip and fall on her ass as the second man's swing swung where her head would've been, hitting space instead. She rolled over and got up, backing up instead of attacking, and 'clumsily' parrying the first man's motion.

She felt it before it happened.

Felt the water roar to life. 

Holy _shit_ , Tommy was powerful. 

Felt the wave of water before she heard it, and heard his cry of _WATCH OUT_ \- too late. 

She could've attempted to dodge it. Attempted, being the keyword. 

And she definitely couldn't have stopped it. 

Tommy had raw ability, much as Cleo - and nobody to teach him. He could seriously hurt himself if he didn't learn soon. 

The wave of water crashed into her and the two men who were unaware of the situation, and False went tumbling in the wave, _saltwater_ \- what was saltwater doing down here? - running up her nose and into her lungs as she coughed.

The wave subsided, and False rose to her hands and knees, a nosebleed spouting from her face from the force of the saltwater, her throat burning, as if she'd just swallowed several gallons.

The other two men, who'd crashed against the wall as well, lay still. She threw them her middle finger, picked up her sword, and spat a glob of blood onto the ground. 

The crowd exploded into cheers, and False turned, rubbing her burning eyes as she saw Pigicial slam the butt of his scythe into his opponents' head. Deo had already taken his down, and was leaning casually on his sword. 

The gates that led back to their rooms opened, and False saw two demons come walking out the other side, probably to drag the losers back to wherever their rooms are. 

"Are you okay?"

False blinked and turned to Tommy. "I - yeah, I'm fine."

"You're bleeding," Pigicial told her. 

False pointed at Tommy. "He slammed me into a wall." Honestly, she'd been glad of that - she'd been the only one to walk away with a wound, which made her seem weaker, and she hadn't had to pretend to be shit any longer. 

"I warned you."

"Yeah," False snorted. " _After_ you sent your super-powerful wave into motion. Thanks a lot, teammate." 

Tommy huffed and crossed his arms. " _I_ think I saved you."

False rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

"You're a dumb idiot."

"You're a stupid child." 

"You're - "

"Will both of you _shut up_ ," Deo snarled, slapping Tommy on the back of his head. "Please. We have an audience."

False rolled her eyes again and followed the trio out through the gate, leaving her opponents behind. 

* * *

Cleo was growing antsy. 

Her parents were in the castle, and the army was trying to wear them out. But there were people in there that were starving - she didn't see why she and Rowan couldn't just fly in and, like, murder them or something. 

She brought up that question to Techno, after he'd had his conversation with Stress, and had gotten less problematic. 

"First of all," Techno had told her. "That's horrible. Secondly...they have mages. They could set a trap for any one of us. We cannot breach the castle because of the corruption that remains within. We have to wait."

"But the people - " she'd said. 

"Most of them are corrupted, anyway," he'd told her gently. "And those that aren't...aren't really people anymore."

"The sooner we take that castle, the sooner we can look for False," she'd argued. 

"I don't think they have any information on that portal," Techno had said. "I think it was a third party."

Cleo had thrown up her hands. "Oh, great."

And here she was. 

Staring at the castle, knowing that her mother and father lay within, unable to do anything because of Techno's stupid - yet profound - plan.

A castle she would one day rule.

In a land that would one day become hers. 

Cleo glared at the castle, cursed, kicked the dirt, and turned away.

For the third time, False was missing. That girl was a huge pain in the ass.

_In a good way_ , she thought fondly. _But I swear to God, I will beat her ass when she comes back._


	38. Arc 2: Chapter 6

A girl plopped down next to False, startling her as the black-haired Asian girl bit into a potato chip, crunching it, a silly grin on her face. 

"Uh, hello?" False said, blinking at her. 

She was alone in the dining hall again, having gone to get a few moments of quiet from the boys who shared the room with her. 

"You won two of your fights, right?" the girl asked her. 

"Yeah," False said slowly. "Two of six." They'd won one earlier today, and it had been easier than the first one. False hadn't even had to fake that much. "You?"

The black-haired girl shrugged, still smiling happily. "Nah. Zero for two. My team's shit." She giggled conspiringly. "It doesn't matter. It's nice to have another girl around here who's not a bitch." 

False blinked at her strong use of words. "Thanks, I guess." She held out her hand. "I'm False."

"I'm Camille," the Asian girl said, still grinning at her. "Nice to meet ya." She tilted her head at False. "You're on the Lime Llamas, hmm?"

"Yep," False said, popping the p. "Why?"

Camille leaned forward, glancing around, as if anyone in the nearly empty mess hall would listen to them. "They're infamous," she whispered.

"For what?" False asked, confused.

"They're favored to win, every year," Camille answered, popping a cookie, seemingly from nowhere, into her mouth. "But they never make it to the finals." She leaned forward again, dropping into a murmur. "People say it's because the judges are messing with them. Last year, Pigicial had a hurt foot, and he was somehow chosen. They are either _really_ unlucky, or the Pit Masters are messing with them." 

"That sounds like something they'd do," False said dryly, thinking of the demons that glared at her in the hallways sometimes. 

"Shhh," Camile hissed. "They could hear you." 

False eyed the girl. "Yeah, whatever." She saluted the girl in a goodbye form, and then wandered out of the mess hall, meaning to go back to the rooms. It was nearly midnight - hopefully the guys were asleep, or quiet, right now. 

But she stopped at the stretch of the hallway where it broke off to go to the arena. 

Something was...calling to her. 

She squinted down the hallway, but nothing seemed out of order.

False glanced down the passage back to her rooms.

But she headed towards the arena instead.

Her gut was telling her to. Was begging her to. She had no idea why...but it better not get her killed. 

The door that led to the gated area - before the gate was opened, the fighters stood there, preparing - was shut. Before that, the 'locker room', of sorts, stood empty. Barrels of water stood against the sides; dirty water, to be sure, but water usable for water mages. 

She put her ear against the door, and could've sworn she heard a bird chirping, fading in and out, as well as low murmurs. 

False opened the door, stepping into the gated area. 

The murmurs turned into shouts, and the chirps turned into Jerry's screeches.

To her surprise, half of the fires lining the arena were lit, though no demons stood lining the benches at the top. 

Instead, a dozen men held Tommy, Deo, and Pigicial captive, all of them shouting at once, trying to get out of the grown men's grip - but without their weapons, without water near enough for Tommy to access, it was three against twelve fully grown men. 

"What the hell is going on here?" False demanded, stepping through the gate into the arena. 

Tommy locked eyes with her, his teal orbs desperate. "Run, False. Get some help."

False didn't move.

The door opened and slammed shut behind her.

"Boss, we couldn't find - oh." 

False looked over her shoulder to see three more men - potentially sent for her. She frowned and counted them in total - fifteen. "I'm insulted. They each get four, and I only get three?"

"What the hell are you doing?" Pigicial hissed at her. 

The leader cocked his head. "Well, yeah. You're a girl. It only makes sense."

"Yeah, why don't you go tell that to Sinner?" False retorted. "She's a girl too."

The boss blinked at her. "You're crazy." He motioned to the people behind her. "Grab her."

False shoved away from the man who grabbed her arm with his sweaty palm. "Get away from me. You stink." 

He sneered at her, showing his broken and crooked teeth. "You won't be saying that soon enough, little girl." 

False rolled her eyes and stomped over to where the men held her teammates, leaning against the wall instead. "I'll just be right here. Don't mind me."

Tommy stared at her as if she were crazy.

Honestly, she probably was. 

The boss gawked at her as well, before shaking it off and rubbing his hands gleefully. "So. I've finally defeated the entire Lime Llamas."

"Yeah, you snuck up on them when they were vulnerable," False put in. " _Very_ brave, I'm sure." 

He glared at her. "Shut the fuck up, woman."

Tommy snorted, and then winced when the man who was holding him dug the knife farther into his side, drawing a bit of blood. 

"It would be so easy to just - " the boss melodramatically snapped his fingers. "Snap your neck. Just like that."

"No, it wouldn't," False said. 

Deo facepalmed. 

"Why would that be, _False_?" one of the men sneered at her. 

"None of you are powerful mages," she pointed out, and when one of them opened their mouths she cut across him. "Oh, please - if you think that's powerful, you obviously haven't ever had any contact with other mages."

"And you think Tommy is powerful?" the boss asked her.

False shrugged. "He could be, one day. With the proper training." Tommy glared at her. 

"He's not going to reach that 'one day'," the leader snorted. 

"So, you're going to try to kill us?" False asked lightly.

"Well, yes - "

"Okay, we're done here," False said, pushing off the wall. 

"False, what are you doing?" she heard Pigicial hiss as she stalked up to the leader and stared him down. 

"There are three main types of powerful mages in this world," she started, stepping back slowly when he drew his blade. 

"I'm going to kill you," he hissed.

"There are those that are powerful, yet controlled by their anger," False said, ignoring his words, as she ducked a swing of his sword, and stepping to the side. "I have a friend named Cleo who is like that. Completely controlled by her emotions when it comes to power." 

"What the fuck are you on?" the leader asked her, swinging at her again. False stepped neatly to the side. 

"There are those," she continued, as if she was teaching a lesson. "There are those, like Tommy, who could be powerful, if they were nudged in the right direction. Yet sometimes, their instincts take over, and they never push their limits." She ducked another blow, hopping over the leg that was meant to set her sprawling. "I have another friend like that; Stress."

"Stand still, you bitch," the leader seethed at her.

Again, she ignored him. "And then there are those, who, while not immensely powerful ability-wise, know what they can do, and use to the best of their ability."

"Oh, which of your friends is like that?" the leader sneered at her.

"Me," False said honestly.

His eyes widened in surprise.

False closed her eyes, and felt for the barrels of water had been in the locker rooms. 

The door exploded off its hinges. 

False smiled as water flew through the air in little streams, intertwining around all of them like a ball of yarn, though there were fewer strands. She laughed as they flew around her, under her direction.

She wasn't like Tommy. She wasn't powerful, when it came to water. But she could _make_ herself seem powerful, because of the control she had over her abilities. 

"Tommy," she said. 

The water formed a giant globe of water in front of the boy, who stared at her, open-mouthed. 

She released her magic, and she felt Tommy's take control over it at the last minute.

The ball of water became a wave, and the wave was directed at the men who stood in the center of the room near False. 

False turned and saw the wave rise above her, a dark tide of dirty water, and she smiled. 

Even with all of her effort, she doubted she could've stopped it. 

As the wave rushed towards her, False closed her eyes and parted Tommy's power, when it became clear that he hadn't built in a part for her. It flashed over her, dripping a bit onto her head, and washing the other men away. 

And when the water cleared, Tommy, Deo, and Pigicial were dripping wet, the first boy panting with effort, the fifteen men having been washed against the opposite wall with such force she was sure some of them had cracked their skull open.

"You need to learn to not try to kill your allies," she chided Tommy half-heartedly. "In a battle, you wouldn't want to wash away your friends."

The three of them stared at her. 

False winked and walked away. 


	39. Arc 2: Chapter 7

She could feel her teammates' eyes on her as she picked at her buttered toast, appetite gone. The fifteen men had gone into the medical wing for 'accidental misuse of power' and come out hours later, looking fine, with a few more scars and less blood in their bodies. They avoided False readily now, along with the rest of the Lime Llamas. 

False had enough of the stares, as she really wanted to eat something without a prickling on her neck. She slammed her hands down on the table, unheard to everybody around because of the noise at breakfast time - besides her teammates. "Please. Stop staring. I can't eat."

Pigicial, Deo, and Tommy glanced at each other, before the latter leaned forward. "You're a water mage," he said in an accused whisper.

False snorted. So they were going to have _this_ conversation. "Uh, yeah. Wasn't that obvious?" 

"You didn't tell us," Deo said simply. 

"You didn't ask," she retorted. 

Pigicial pointed his bit of bacon at her. "That's not right, and you know it."

She glared at him sullenly, and then threw up her hands. "Yes, fine, I kept it from you. But wasn't it a good thing?"

"I _guess_ ," Tommy said slowly. He regarded her. "Are you keeping any more secrets from us?"

False didn't answer him. "Alright, maybe my story from before contained a few lies." 

"Like...?" Deo prodded. 

"Like I wasn't watching from the battle from the trees," False sighed. "I fought in it." She hesitated. "Kind of." 

"YOU MET TECHNOBLADE!" Tommy yelled. 

Deo elbowed him. "Quiet down. You did as well. It's nothing new."

"Yeah," False said, a small smile on her face. "Yeah, I did. And I met the Queen of Hearts, as well. They're both amazing fighters."

"I bet Technoblade would win," Tommy sniffed. 

False shrugged. "They're on the same side. They'd have no need to fight." She hesitated once again. "Yes, I fought in the battle for Southern freedom. I don't know who won, because I fell down...here. But the lost princess of the south was found, and Techno...blade...was going to put her on the throne."

"Clementine Evalangine?" Pigicial asked her, raising his eyebrows. 

She pointed her finger at him. "You certainly know your history. Yes, Clementine Evalangine. She supports us. She was one of the sixty girls taken at a young age from the south, and she came back without her memories. Oh, and _your_ queen was found as well."

"But - "

"But nothing," False said, interrupting Pigicial. "The body of the Northern princess was never recovered. She was taken to the south, and placed in a village, along with Cle...Clementine. She was _also_ one of the sixty girls taken."

"Dang," Tommy muttered. "A lot has happened while we've been away." 

False shrugged. "War is war," she said. "Power is power." She turned her head towards Tommy. "Speaking of power, you need to learn a few things." 

"But you said it yourself," Tommy argued. "I'm more powerful than you."

False snorted. "Raw power does not make one a winner," she said. "In fact, I bet I could beat you."

"Done," Tommy said, standing up, his eyes shining with excitement. "It's on." 

Deo sighed, and Pigicial groaned. "Why would you say that?" the orange-haired man said. 

"I'm proving a point," False said. She turned back to Tommy. "If I win, you have to agree to learn from me before you kill someone - likely, your teammates, with the way you nearly drowned me twice."

"Fine," Tommy said, sticking out his hand. "If I win, you have to - uh - get Techno potatoes."

False crossed her arms. "Is this about the whole potato war thing?"

"Yes," Deo said bluntly. "Yes, it is."

"I thought it ended."

"It's on _pause_ ," Tommy corrected. "Because of the war."

False sighed. "Okay, fine. If I lose - and I won't - I'll give Techno as many potatoes as he wants." Whatever that meant. She rubbed her forehead. "I really _don't_ want to do magic around other people at this moment, and I don't want to go to the arena. Is there like a private place, or...?"

"There is, but it's just for the Elite," Deo said, standing up suddenly. "Which we should be, but we aren't. The demons hate us."

"Why?" she asked curiously.

"Because we're good," Pigicial said simply, gesturing to the Reaper Scythe that hung across his back. 

False was tempted to say _not really_ \- but they were good, compared to most of the population. In fact, they'd have probably been commanders in the Northern Army, like Iskall, Wels, Skeppy, and BBH. She had to remember to recommend them to Techno if he ever asked for good fighters. 

They weren't bad people. They were just in the wrong place. 

"I'll get my coins to bribe the guards," Deo sighed.

"He has money?" False asked Pigicial. 

The orange-haired man nodded seriously as they trailed after Deo and Jerry. "Yeah. He has a...gambling habit. It's not so bad - but he just spends money. Do you notice how his sword is gold? He thinks that by _feeding it coins_ it'll become more powerful."

False blinked at Pigicial. "And...and you're not _worried about his sanity_?"

He shrugged. "I think we should all be worried about our sanity down here," he said seriously. "I've seen people eat only bagels, or make maps, or write an entire series of books - at least Deo isn't going to die from it. We all have our own little quirks."

"Yeah?" False asked. "What's yours?"

"I like myth-busting," Pigicial told her.

"Uh...what?"

He shrugged awkwardly. "You know...finding stuff that people think could be real and using my knowledge and science to prove them either right or wrong."

"No, I don't know, and I don't want to know," she said dryly. "What is Tommy? A drug dealer?"

Pigicial snorted. "Funny you should say that. He has a shack - the 'underscore, underscore, underscore, underscore' shack. The SCAM shack. But sometimes we say DRUG shack to make fun of him." 

"Scam? What does he scam people out of?"

"Anything," Pigicial shrugged. "Cookies, money, armor, weapon forges...you know. Whatever he can get his hands on." 

"All of you are weird," False snorted. 

Pigicial regarded her seriously. "You know, by the end of the first year, I bet you'll have something quirky too. I mean, if you don't die first."

"You have absolutely no faith in me, do you?" False asked him.

Pigicial shrugged. "I have some. You did, after all, save our lives last night. But that was with the element of surprise. You're out of those, now."

False snorted. "Right."

If only they knew who she was. 

* * *

Deo paid the guards off, and was able to get access to a small, tall-ceilinged room, complete with barrels of water on each side. False didn't carry her weapons with her - there was really no point - but Tommy put his Aspect of the Dragon to the side. 

"You're going to lose!" Tommy said, as Pigicial and Deo settled alongside the wall. Jerry flew over and landed on False's shoulder for a brief second before taking off, and False saw Deo frown for a second before she returned her attention to the teal-eyed boy. 

False smiled softly in return, and waited for Tommy to grab the water.

He did.

She knew his power. She'd felt it in the arena, both when the fifteen men had attacked them and she'd nearly drowned _and_ when she'd fought side by side with him the first time. False knew there was no way she'd win in a battle of pure strength - Tommy would beat her in that.

"What, you're just going to let him take it?" Pigicial called out to her, sounding dismayed.

False ignored him and stood her ground. 

True to his usual way, Tommy sent a huge wave of water in her direction.

She heard Pigical's sigh of disappointment; he was certain she'd get washed away.

But it was easy to guide Tommy's power away from her. The blonde-haired boy was merely sending the water in her direction, and stopping. He didn't _know_ how to battle another water elemental.

And so, just as she'd done when Tommy had thrown a wave at her a second time, she forced the wave around her. She didn't stop it, didn't try to disappate it - just shifted it slightly to the side. 

And she walked through it. 

False saw Tommy's surprised face as he fumbled for the water, most of which was beyond his reach. "You need to learn _control_ ," she said steadily. "You are using everything you have in one fell swoop." 

Tommy glared at her and swung another bit of water at her, this one much like a whip. False merely ducked it, idly looking at him. "You need to learn how to use your abilities," she said, catching his hand as he raised it to take water that had sunk into the ground. 

"Don't," she warned him.

She felt the water rise into the air from behind her, and she tugged on the lifeforce that she could feel flowing through his veins. 

Tommy's eyes went wide, and he collapsed.

False caught him, lowering him gently to the ground as Pigicial and TimeDeo rushed over. 

"What did you do to him?" Deo demanded. 

"I tugged on his lifeforce," False murmured, standing back. He was only unconscious; she could see the steady rise and fall of his chest. 

Pigicial gaped at her. "You... _what_?"

False rubbed her forehead. "There are many different types of water mages. There are ones like - like my friend, Stress, who can freeze water." She gestured at Tommy on the ground, whom Deo was now kneeling by. "There are water mages like him, who control water, and _only_ water. There are water mages who can control blood - the healers. And then there are water mages like me, who can draw on the force of life that comes from water." False motioned around them. "Every tree, every grass, every human being has life that flows through them, and I can take it." She felt slightly sick at the thought of Kian's shriveled body at her feet. 

"Take it?" Pigicial whispered, eyes wide. "Like...you can drain the life out of them?"

False nodded grimly. 

"...and, have you?" Deo asked her. 

False hesitated before responding. "Once."

"Did he deserve it?"

"Yes."

"Who was he?" Pigicial prodded at her.

"He was my husband," she whispered, tears sliding down her face. 

"Oh, shit," Deo muttered. "That means he changed, though, over the years - right? He wasn't the person you loved?"

She laughed blandly. "I'm _nineteen_ , Deo. I never had the time to fall in love. In fact - I never loved him. I hate him. Hated him. Kian was the worst person to ever walk this earth, and it is a better place without someone as vile as him to exist." She shuddered. "It was a forced marriage, and not one I agreed to. I was...sixteen, and he was eighteen. It wasn't a fun experience." 

Pigicial gaped at her as False stared at the wall, closing her tears as the salty streaks grew even wider. "That's...horrible," he managed to squeak out. 

"You can say that again," False huffed. "He was a corrupted mage. I don't think there was an _ounce_ of good in him, if _ever_." 

"Corrupted mage?" Deo asked, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"Mages that were forced to have magic, specifically black magic," False said idly. "Their magic tends to be evil, and it ends up corrupting the person. We think it's what the tests were on the children - to see if the corrupted magic would stick at a young age."

"Luckily it never worked," Pigicial said with a small laugh. When False didn't confirm his words, he looked up at her nervously. "...right?"

"There were a few that never returned," she whispered. "Just a few. One of them was the Black Knight, and the other was the Queen of Hearts. Both of them were children, and one turned out evil...and the other broken." She hesitated before continuing. "Sinner was never truly evil. She never had corrupted magic."

"Then why did she kill people?" Deo asked. "Surely, she could've just said...no? Any good person would rather die than kill others."

"It wasn't as simple as that," False whispered. 

"What?" Pigicial asked. 

She jerked in surprise. "I - I said that you'll have to ask her yourself. But Techno and the Ice Queen, as well as the...future...Southern Queen vouched for her. She's on our side."

"Until she's not," Deo said darkly.

False wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. 


	40. Arc 2: Chapter 8

"Luna," Stress whispered, kneeling in the grass by the curled up moon phoenix, her book forgotten on the grass beside her. "Luna, you need to take the saddle off. It's going to ruin your feathers."

The phoenix regarded her for a second with an icy eye. _Good,_ Luna said. She tucked her head under her wing once more, but Stress knew she wasn't sleeping. 

"It's only been a week," she begged the moon phoenix. "False has gone missing for longer than that." 

Luna didn't even respond to that.

Stress cast her eyes to Glacier, who was lying curled in the shade, preening his feathers. "Can you help me?"

Glacier eyed her. _You are trying to take the one thing away that reminds Luna of False._

"It's not like False is _dead_!" Stress tried to say, annoyed. "We're not taking her possesions to bury them with her in her grave, Luna. I'm trying to help your obviously poor mental health."

She could've sword that the moon phoenix snorted. 

"Luna, False wouldn't want you to be like this."

_Yeah, and I doubt your mother would've wanted you to become queen at a time like this, either,_ Luna shot back. _We are what we are, now. There is no changing it._

Stress's jaw dropped, shocked at Luna's defeated tone. "What do you mean, _there's no changing it_? False will come back." 

_You don't know that._

"But you don't know that she won't either," she argued.

Luna gave a small chuckle in Stress's mind. _Would you rather me be overly optimistic?_

"No!" Stress snapped. "But moping around isn't going to find her. The world, whether we like it or not, spins on with or without False. We must keep moving, even if she is to fade slowly behind." 

_That's a horrible thing to say._

"Says you," Stress said sadly, plopping down under the tree once more and drawing her knees to her chest. "I wonder...when will False stop going missing?"

_That girl is entirely too much trouble_ , Luna grumbled. _It's no wonder she died first in your previous lives_.

Stress glared at Luna. "We _all_ died in a battle. Ziyah, known as False, now, Ivy, who is Cleo, and Riarna...me. Don't you forget that you also died the same day as Ziyah. Miracle - Miracles...brought us back, and even if we don't remember, we are in the bodies of legends." Miracle, the Goddess of Life, had brought them back - not that anybody needed to know that. Not that anybody would believe her if she told them she met an ancient Goddess from another time.

Then again, she was a reincarnation. 

_Hmm_ , Luna said, not sounding too grateful. _Can you live up to Riarna's legacy?_

Stress let out a sigh. "I - I don't know."

Queen Riarna. The greatest Ice Queen to ever live. The throne had been passed down to her weaker younger brother...to her grandparents, to her parents...and then to her, once more. Could she ever live up to that? Riarna had united the North, and she and Queen Ivy had been attempting to unite the South and the North together before they'd been ambushed. 

And Ziyah...Ziyah had died months prior, defending the same damn passageway in the mountains against corrupted mages, before they'd taken over the South. Luna had died that day as well, but they had done it. They had stopped the army from advancing far enough to kill people in villages. 

It hadn't mattered.

Once Queen Riarna and Queen Ivy died, everything broke to madness. Corruption took ahold of the South, and the North retreated back, not willing to deal with the darkness that lay beyond the Remoa Mountains. 

_You are not alone this time,_ Glacier rumbled in her head. _This time...you can trust the people around you._ This _time, you have an army, military strategists, and nobody to judge you for claiming your throne. Queen Riarna, at twenty-five, was the youngest queen to ever claim the Northern Throne. You know this. You will be even younger._

Stress snorted. "Yeah. And I'll die younger, too."

_You will be the greatest Ice Queen in the history of the North,_ Glacier promised her. _Greater than your mother, greater than your grandmother...and greater than Riarna._

_You have found your destiny._

* * *

Cleo stared into the mirror, at herself. She reached a shaky hand up to touch the scar that marred her cheek, that she'd somehow gotten during her gap memories when she was nine. 

She stared at the red-haired girl in the mirror, eyes red from lack of sleep, lips chapped from the dryness that often permeated the air in the high altitudes, at the tiredness that lay on her face. 

"You gonna stand there all day staring at yourself?" Joe said from behind her.

Cleo jumped, reaching for the sword that always lay at her side, now, except when she was sleeping. 

Joe put his hands up sheepishly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." He narrowed his eyes at her. "Wow, you look terrible."

"I'm going to break your legs," Cleo said decisively. 

Joe took a step back warily. "I'm sure we can come to a reasonable agreement, Cleo, one that does not involve in the wrecking of my perfectly good appendages."

Cleo sighed and rubbed her face, walking over to her bed and sitting down in it. "I - in a few weeks, we'll be returning to the castle to overtake it, if they haven't given it up by then." Her lips trembled. "And then...and then I'll be queen."

"A damn good one," Joe said with a small nod.

"No!" Cleo cried out. "I don't _know_ how to be a queen. That's a job for Stress, or for Techno, or for anybody _but_ me."

"Oh, Cleo," Joe sighed. "You don't think Stress has her own reservations about her birthrights? Of course, she does. Neither of you were born princesses. You were never trained in the art of politics, or in the dance of royal diplomacies. You were never trained in battle, or as a leader. But you have your family's line to continue - "

Cleo snorted. "Yeah, I think I'll just end it here with me. Don't want any miniature versions of my mother running around." 

"Blood does not determine one's self-worth," Joe said adamantly. "If you ever have children, Cleo, they will not turn out like your mother. You know how to raise them better than that." 

Cleo sighed miserably. "I don't know how to to be queen," she insisted.

"Maybe not," Joe said with a shrug. "But nevertheless, you were born for it. And we will be with you and Stress every single step of the way. This is your destiny, whether you like it or not."

* * *

False held a globe of water in her hand, on the other side of the arena that Deo had bribed the guards into letting them use. "Do you feel it?" she told Tommy, who stood on the other side. 

"No," Tommy said.

"Try harder," she insisted. 

"I don't know _how_ to feel for it."

False sighed and stepped closer, until she saw Tommy's eyes brighten. And then she took a step back. Scowling, Tommy moved to step forward, but False glared at him.

"People aren't going to bring water to you, Tommy. You have to be ready to grab it from the nearest source." She gestured around. "Whether if you're falling from a cliff towards a lake, and need to cushion your fall, or - "

"Nobody falls from the sky into a lake," Tommy snorted.

False smirked internally. She'd done it nearly twice before. It wasn't impossible. "What if you didn't have to move when you use your powers, as you did in the first battle? You didn't need your friends to potentially get injured. You made your wave - we need to fix the kinds of things you _can_ do - and you did it from the gateway you stepped out of? Easy win."

Now that her abilities were out, False was able to use them in the arena fights. Tomorrow would be their sixth battle - and hopefully their sixth win. She'd gained a bit of respect from her groupmates, even though she was technically still taking obsolete sword lessons from Pigicial.

"You need to reach your mind out and feel for it," she said slowly. "Like how you do normally. You need to stretch your limits." 

Tommy closed his eyes, and she knew he was stretching for it, reaching for it - she felt him touch it, felt the water move out of her control.

False took a step back.

Tommy opened his eyes and scowled at her. 

She raised an eyebrow. "Learn quickly, Tommy. We do not have the time that I had to learn."

She could feel the tendrils of his magic creeping closer to the globe of swirling water she had in her hand. 

She took another step back.

Tommy's eyes shot open once more. "This is stupid," he said in disgust. 

False stared at him, and split the globe into tendrils of water that she made dance around her, like many snakes flying through the air. "This is your destiny, Tommy."

"I'm pretty sure my destiny is to die down here," the boy said under his breath. 

"It is," False said, and Tommy's eyes shot up to meet her. "You cannot expect that - " She pointed at his sword, which leaned against the wall. " - to be the only thing to beat the demons."

"Beat the demons?" Tommy mouthed. "We're supposed to beat other people. Monsters. Humans. We're supposed to win the Championships."

False snorted. "I've never heard of this...Nether place we're in. Techno has never mentioned it. Do you really think the demons let the winners go free, so they can go tell their rulers that someone is pitching fighter against fighter and mage against mage? No, Tommy. They aren't going to let you go that easily. Even if you _do_ win."

"But - but they _promised_!" Tommy said with a gasp. 

"And you should trust your enemies?" False said with a growl. "These people are your captors. Do not _ever_ trust them. Not with anything significant. And most importantly - your _life_ . You have something that many do not - and you also have something that many _mages_ do not - raw power. If I am right, and the demons do betray you, then you will need something more powerful than a sword to beat them. We _all_ will." 

False sent the tendrils of water into a globe again, to hover between her and Tommy. "This is your destiny."

Tommy stared at the Globe that floated in front of them. He looked up at False. "What is yours?"

False stared at him. "That remains to be seen."


	41. Arc 2: Chapter 9

Tommy flung open the door to their rooms, and False jumped, nearly spitting out the slice of orange she'd been eating. 

He grinned at nobody in particular. Pigicial put down his cards and stared at him, and Deo raised his head from his cards as well.

"Where have you been?" False asked him.

Tommy flipped a coin in his hand. "Just scammed a mage, feeling good!" 

Deo put his head down on the table. "Oh my god." 

False frowned, confused, as she set down a +4 card on top of Pigicial's red eight. "Green. Are you...okay?" 

Deo glared at her as he was forced to pick up four cards from the center pile. "It's a thing that he says. It's originally based the time he said "Just killed a woman, feeling good", around a year and a half ago when he killed a female demon."

"That's a horrible thing to say," False said absentmindedly, watching as Pigicial placed down a green four. She put a green one on top of it, and turned back to Tommy. "Exactly _what_ went through your mind when you said that?"

Tommy shrugged at her, as he sat down on the couch, the jingle of coins hearable throughout the room. "I wasn't thinking. But I sold a Jerry egg for two hundred silver, so - "

"YOU WHAT?" Deo shrieked. 

Pigicial snorted. False muffled her laughter. 

"Yeah, Jerry laid an egg," Tommy said absentmindedly. "I uh - I think he's female." 

Jerry the robin chirped from his - from _her_ \- position on Deo's shoulder. "But don't robins need to - " Deo started.

"They can have eggs even without a male counterpart," False said, glaring at Pigicial as he skipped her. "It just won't ever hatch." She thought that was robins. It was certainly _some_ bird that could lay eggs without males. 

Deo rolled his eyes and slammed a +2 down on the table, one Pigicial quickly followed with his own - and then False, as well. "Uno," she said. 

"What - no, that's not fair - " Deo sputtered, as False and Pigicial high-fived. He glared at them and drew his six cards.

"What's your last card?" Pigicial asked False.

"A green six," she replied. She wasn't lying, either.

Pigicial rolled his eyes. "Right." He put down a green two.

False grinned and put her last card down on the top of the pile. "I win." 

Pigicial's mouth dropped. "Why would you _tell_ me what your card is?" he asked her.

"Reverse psychology," she said. "You thought I wouldn't tell you, so when I did, you assumed it was a lie, leaving you free to place down a green card. Thanks."

Deo snorted at her. "Want to play?" he asked Tommy, as he started dealing the cards. 

"Sure - "

A knock interrupted them. 

False stared at the door. "Were we expecting someone?" she asked in a whisper. 

"No," Pigicial whispered back. 

Everyone stared at the door, as a harder knock came from it. False glanced at them, huffed, stood up, and threw the door open.

She came face-to-face with a demon, his hand raised to knock again, his other hand on his sword.

False backpedaled, surprised, as the demon's hand came out and grabbed her forearm. "Let me go, you jerk," she snarled, twisting her arm out of his grip. 

She heard movement behind her, and the drawing of steel, and she turned to see Deo with his Midas Sword drawn, and Pigicial reaching for his scythe. Tommy had his sword in his hands, but it wasn't drawn yet - yet she could see he was ready to pull it out at any moment. 

"You are False, correct?" the demon asked, not even blinking an eye at the chaos. 

False frowned at him, crossing her arms. "Yeah. So what?"

"Boss wants to see you," the demon said, grabbing for her arm with his sickly-looking grey skin. 

"Why?" Pigicial challenged from behind her.

The demon sneered at the orange-haired man who stood behind False bravely. "Boss's decisions are her own. And even if I did know, I wouldn't be telling the likes of you."

"The likes of you?" Deo snarled, his Midas Sword in his hand. "Your kind kidnapped us, you prick."

The demon snarled right back, drawing his own sword, and False placed a hand on both of their chests, pushing them both apart. "Let's all calm the fuck down here," she said sharply. "There's _far_ too much testosterone in this room for my liking." She removed her hands, discreetly wiping the grossness from touching the demon from her fingertips. "Mr. Demon. Lead the way, please."

"Wha - no!" Tommy blurted. "You're just going to _go_ with him?"

False frowned at the blonde-haired boy. "Please. If they were going to kill me, they'd do it more discreetly then _marching down the hall_ and demanding I go talk to their boss."

"Doesn't mean they won't kill you," Deo warned.

False shrugged. "You guys can't get rid of me that easily." She winked, to show she was joking, and closed the door behind her, her borrowed sword at her hip. 

In truth, False wasn't sure if the demons would kill her. Certainly, she didn't pose a threat compared to Tommy, Pigicial, or Deo. Or at least - she hadn't shown differently. 

The demon didn't speak to her, just led her down hallways that False didn't recognize - they were usually guarded so she couldn't explore, but the guards let her pass after a few guttural words from the leader in a language she didn't understand. 

The passageways began to grow more guilded, made less out of stone, and more out of the dark red-purple block that Pigicial had told her was called nether brick. Flames stood on dark iron chandeliers, eerily lighting the way, as False walked in silence, her eyes flitting to every nook and cranny, trying to maintain outer calm - but she was in enemy territory, anything could happen here. Anything could happen, and nobody would care. 

Her only comfort was that one day Tommy and Pigicial and TimeDeo would one day get out of here. She knew they would - or they would die trying. One day, they would win, and the demons would let them go, or the demons would kill them. And if the trio was let go...she did not doubt that he'd go back to Techno, his mentor, and tell him what had happened in his missing years.

And then her case would be closed. 

False began to sweat, not from nervousness, but the sheer heat as they headed deeper into the Nether Fortress. Outside the gated windows, she could see huge lava pools, far larger than any she'd ever seen - they were more like lakes, or oceans - and in the haziness, occasional endless streams of red-hot lava from the peppery ceiling. 

"Get moving."

False jumped, nearly drawing her sword at the growled voice, turning and scowling towards the demon who stood a few feet in front of her, having paused when she'd stopped to gaze out the window. "I'm coming, I'm coming," she grumbled. 

After a few more minutes of walking, the demon led False to a gilded door made of gold and dark black blocks that looked charcoal to touch, but False knew instinctively was dark steel. 

False stared at her escort, but he merely raised an eyebrow at her, and she sighed, pushing the door open and letting it slam behind her with a dull _thud_ that made her cringe. 

It wasn't a throne room, but more of...and office. A she-demon, maybe a bit older than False, sat behind a desk, writing something with a black feather and red ink. She looked up when the door opened, and False saw that she had blood-red eyes, blood-red hair, and an almost sunray colored skin.

The she-demon gestured to an empty chair on the other side of the desk. "Please. Sit."

Warily, False drew back the chair and sat down, putting her left arm on the desk, her right hand on her lap, ready to draw the sword at any given moment. But the she-demon made no move to leap over the desk and try to strangle her, or stab her - in fact, as False stared at the demon, she didn't seem to have a weapon of any kind. The she-demon returned to writing in a language that False couldn't read, and she shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

"Why am I here?" she blurted out after a good five minutes of silence.

The she-demon looked up at her. "Why, just like everyone else is here. You fell through a portal." 

False hissed through her teeth. "You created the portal."

"I did no such thing," the she-demon said with a tinge of amusement that False did not find funny. "I do not have time to care about the fighting pits. That is my associate's job, not mine. I'm sure you've met him. Blood-red ram horns? Black eyes?"

False shivered in her seat as she remembered the piercing eyes of the demon she'd seen on the stage, before she'd gone to the arena instead of the mines. "Oh. Right."

"My people must be kept happy, False," the she-demon said absently, returning to her writing. "And if it is by kidnapping humans and forcing them to fight each other, then so be it. Better that, than invasion. I don't particularly enjoy wars." 

"Make the demons fight each other," False snarled. "You make innocent people die."

"They had a choice," the she-demon said.

" _Ten years_?" False demanded. "They would've had to spend ten years in the mines. That's unreasonable."

The she-demon shrugged. "Humans are picky creatures. Short lifespans. They would prefer to get out here sooner, even with a chance of certain death, than wait it out. They would be perfectly protected mining quartz."

False's hands clenched into fists. "You steal us from our homes, and you expect us to _thank you_ for giving us your so-called safety?"

"No," the she-demon said. "I don't expect you to thank me. You have every right to be angry. I'm merely saying that it was all your choices to join the fighting pits." 

"I'd be old in ten years!" False cried out. "My life would have passed me by!"

"Yes, I know," the she-demon sighed. "That's why I added you, personally, to the Lime Llamas team."

"I picked it from a hat, though," she said in disbelief. "You didn't do anything."

The she-demon sighed again, and held out her quill. It disappeared in a blink, and reappeared next to False's hands, before blinking away back into the she-demon's hands once more. "I'm a teleportation mage. It's quite simple. I added you to the Lime Llamas because you weren't ever supposed to end up here. I had a few words with my associate for choosing you. The Lime Llamas should've won ages ago, but the odds were against them - "

"On purpose, or not?" False asked in a quiet voice.

The she-demon either pretended not to hear, or didn't. " - the odds were against them, and somehow they haven't won. With you, they _will_ win this year, and you all can go back to the Overworld." 

"I've never heard of the Nether," False said indignantly. "How do I know you're not just killing the winners and pretending that you let them free?"

The she-demon regarded her. "The same way Stress and Cleo were let free from the Southern Castle. Memory mages. I would explain the details, but I get the feeling you understand - don't you, Sinner Symmetry?"

False stood up in a flurry of movement, drawing her sword. "My name is False." 

"Yes, it is," the she-demon said, squinting at her. "But you used to go by Sinner, didn't you?" She waved her arms at the chair. "Oh, sit down. You're not going to attack me."

False debated cutting the she-demon's throat, but then the rest of the demons would kill her. She eyed the she-demon warily and sat back down heavily, keeping her sword firmly in her hand. 

"You are Sinner Symmetry, aren't you?" the she-demon said quietly, regarding her. 

False didn't respond.

"I'm Naria, the administrator in the Nether," the she-demon said. "It's nice to finally meet you."

"What do you mean, _finally meet you_?" False burst out. "It's not like I know who you are."

"Yes, but I know who _you_ are," Naria replied primly. "I know what you are, who you wish you were, and what you went through in your eleven years of pain."

False stared at her, slack-jawed.

"Your friends need you back," the red-horned she-demon continued. "I cannot allow you to go free. That would be unfair. Most of the fighters are a bunch of thieves and other nasty people. Some have been here too long - you've met Julia, I take it? Sweet girl, but she's a bit odd from seven years." False nodded - she’d met the batshit crazy girl once, and never wanted to again. "You _will_ be chosen in the semi-finals to fight those monsters, you know."

False clenched her jaw together, and nodded sharply. She'd already known that. 

"And when you win the finals, you will take your team to victory," Naria said. "Because all of you deserve to return to your homes. All of you deserve to go home." She steepled her fingers together. "You will save the world, False. You will unite the two kingdoms - you've already killed Kian, your husband. You have a few more targets to go through before you can rest."

"How do you know all of this?" False whispered.

"I have had...visions," Naria said after a moment. "Of a Goddess called Miracle. She told me you would come, one day. She showed me your childhood, and I watched you, ever so often, as you grew up."

"That's creepy," False said.

"Who do you think moved your bodies so that you could go North?" Naria said, raising an eyebrow. "Come on, you don't think you washed down the river, through the mountains, without drowning? My sister and I helped with that."

"I suppose I should thank you, then," False said sarcastically.

Naria's red eyes regarded her. "Don't thank me," she said. "Save the world, False. A greater storm approaches than the South, and you can only fight it _together_."


	42. Arc 2: Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Sorry, late upload - I was busy playing D&D with my friends.  
> Anyways, for the next two weeks, updates may/will be sporadic and sparse. I have finals until June 19th, and will be focused on those so I can actually pass highschool.  
> Sorry for the trouble.

"The demon overlord didn't kill you!" Tommy said cheerfully, swinging open the door to False when she'd knocked. 

"No," False sighed, pushing past him and plopping down on the couch. "I'm dead, obviously." 

Pigicial was snoring on the couch opposite her, and Deo was nowhere to be found, probably sleeping in his room. Her inner clock told her it was pretty late, as did the tiredness she felt in her bones. "I'm surprised you're up, Tommy."

"Someone has to make sure you returned," Tommy retorted. "I didn't want you to write me out of the will."

False coughed and laughed at the same time, and ended up choking on air. " _Excuse me_?" she said, after she got her bearings. "I don't have a will." She hesitated. "Or anything to put in my will."

Tommy huffed. "Well, I don't see the point of opening the door for you, then." He smiled at her, to show he was joking. "No, but seriously, what happened out there?"

False sighed widely, and Pigicial twitched on the couch, before continuing snoring. "I talked to a demon named Naria. She's a teleportation mage. She told me that the assignment to the Lime Llamas wasn't random, it was because she thought you guys could win, and I'm needed in the Overworld with the war."

"Wait, so we're essentially carrying you?" Tommy said.

"Nah," False replied. "She told me I'm going to be picked for the semi-finals."

"Oh, shit," Tommy cursed.

"Relax," False told him. "That's only if we win tomorrow. If we lose, we have a tiebreaker. I don't particularly want to fight a tiebreaker."

"Yeah, me neither," Tommy muttered. "Me neither."

* * *

Five and a half weeks. 

That's how long False had been missing. 

Stress rubbed her forehead tiredly. She hadn't been able to sleep recently, worrying over this and that. They'd taken the Southern castle with little incident, except Cleo's mother had yet to be found. Cleo's father had been killed in the attack, and nobody was overly angry about that. But still...the queen had gone missing, and Stress was constantly looking over her shoulder in fear of retribution.

Cleo had sniffed and said, "My mother probably ran like the coward she is."

And that was that. 

All the corrupted mages had been either killed or rounded up for testing, to see if the healers could undo the damage that had been done to them. 

Stress and Cleo both hadn't agreed to a coronation yet - she got the feeling Cleo was scared, and Stress just wanted False to be there - but they'd released all the prisoners and slaves in the dungeons and sent them on their way.

And in doing so, they'd gotten horror stories of the time in the castle. Stress, Techno, and Cleo had to interview each one of the Northerners, to make sure they weren't corrupted, and Stress hated the things she heard. Some of them, she even recognized, from her short time at the Southern castle. 

There were so many horrible things about the Black Knight and the Queen of Hearts. Some of the prisoners even said that Sinner looked haunted sometimes, and that she'd saved so many people - they wanted to know where she was, so they could thank her. It made Stress's heart ache to tell them that False was missing. 

And then there were the phoenix eggs. 

A new generation of phoenix riders to come.

Dozens upon dozens of different sized eggs. Ash had told Stress that there were far fewer female phoenixes than males, which is why the eggs had dwindled - it was easier to take out the ten percent of the population that was female, than one-hundred percent. Luna wasn't exactly _expected_ to lay eggs one day, and she wouldn't have to unless she wanted to...but she was rare, and she had the chance to create life.

Though Stress got the feeling Luna wouldn't be doing anything until False returned. If False ever returned. 

Since she and Cleo were now queens, Techno had been put in charge of training a new generation. Teenagers came to the castle all the time now, but none of the eggs ever hatched. Techno reassured her that they would, when the time was right.

The phoenix riders would return.

* * *

"Oh, fuck, they're mages," Deo grumbled at False's side.

She squinted at the six not-very-imposing figures across the cheering arena. "We've fought mages before."

"Fire mages," Pigicial clarified.

False's stomach roiled at the thought, her mind flashing to black fire that circled around her, but she shook it off. _They're not Kian_ , she chided herself. _You're Sinner Symmetry. You can defeat them. You killed the Black Knight._

At this point, False seriously wished she had two swords - but neither Tommy nor Deo fought with two one-handed swords, and it would seem mighty odd. She'd asked Pigicial about it, and he said that you had to be in very good control with one sword the first time. 

"There's no water," Tommy muttered. 

False looked around the arena for the barrels that usually littered the edges, and saw none. "Oh. That's not very good."

"They're doing it again," Deo said through gritted teeth.

False threw the animal mage a look. "What? Doing what?"

"Forcing the odds against us," Pigicial answered, anger pouring out of his mouth. "They do this every year." 

"Yeah?" False said, starting to walk forward. "We can do this." 

Pigicial eyed her. "Now you sound like Tommy." But he raised his scythe and followed behind her. 

"You calling me overconfident?" Tommy said. 

"Yes," Deo and Pigicial answered firmly. 

False laughed.

And then all four of them burst into a sprint. 

The cheering of the arena grew silent, but False tuned it out, watching as the opposite team - she believed it was the Amber Alligators - closed in around two of its teammates.

And fire burst to life around them.

Her heart nearly stopped its pounding in its chest. 

Suddenly, she was back in the dome again, and Kian was driving his sword down towards her chest, and the nearly-healed cuts in her palm throbbed at the memory. She could see his black eyes boring into her, filled with death and pain and contempt, contempt for her - 

A blinding light filled her vision, and she realized too late that a fireball was coming for them. For her. 

There was nothing she could do to stop it. 

Nothing but dive at the nearest person - Tommy - and push him, and herself out of the way.

Leaving Deo and Pigicial to get blown back by the fireball, both of them turning so only their back gets scorched, trying their best to dive out of the way - but they failed, and got blown against the wall, twenty feet behind them.

Her palms slapped the dirt, and she heard Tommy gasp as his ankles were burned bright red. False rolled onto her feet, and Tommy got to his feet as well, standing next to her - but the six enemies were coming at her, and they'd already gotten Deo and Pigicial. She didn't even know if they were bleeding.

"Oh, fuck," Tommy cursed in a low voice. "We're gonna lose."

False frowned, but not at him. At what she had felt when she'd touched the soil that the demons had carted in as a substitute for the hard red rock that lay everywhere on the arena. 

Water.

False knelt down, throwing her swords aside onto the earth, and pressing both hands down into the soil, breathing in the earthiness. It smelled terrible - but the important part was that dirt was twenty-five percent water. 

She could draw on the tree water, on the water in plants - why not earth? It was there, she could feel it.

"What are you doing?" Tommy hissed, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he glanced back at his two fallen teammates. "You're not an earth mage."

"Do you feel it?" False breathed out softly. "The water. It lies in the soil."

"No," Tommy said harshly. "I don't, actually. You said it yourself. There are different types of water mages."

A circle of fire flickered to life around the eight of them, and False's breathing quickened. The fire wasn't burning the dirt - no, it was burning in the air, as dirt wasn't flammable, because it contained _water_ \- if she could just draw it up - 

But it was difficult to distinguish the tiny, minuscule drops of water that lay in the earth. 

"Well, well," a male voice sneered, and False grabbed her swords quickly, backpedaling to stand next to Tommy. "If it isn't the all-powerful Lime Llamas."

"Damien," Tommy said, raising his chin to look at the dirty-blonde haired human. "We meet again."

"You act as if we are opponents," Damien hissed through crooked teeth. "You are _children_ compared to me."

"Are we talking about actual age here?" False retorted. "Or mental age? Those are two very different things."

He sneered at her, flame appearing in his hand. "You shouldn't be one to talk, little girl."

"Oh, very original," Tommy spat. 

False put a hand on his shoulder, turning her attention to the one called Damien. 

_I am not afraid._

The fire flickered, just as her certainty. 

_I will not be afraid._

"You remind me of someone," False said easily, trying to force the lump out of her throat. "Kian. He had fire powers too, and used them to abuse others." She tilted her head at Damien. "He's dead now. I killed him."

Damien looked uneasy, but the men around him hissed and spat at False as she readied herself to give it her all. As _they_ readied themselves to charge. Through the soles of her boots, she could feel the water, tingling, waiting for her to take it - if only she knew how. If only she could.

Two versus six.

"I encourage you to surrender before people get hurt," another man said, clutching his rough ax in his hands.

False stared at him. "I could say the same for you."

She felt it, then. The connection with the water in the dirt - with the water molecules that lay, separated, between all the mulch and tiny rocks. A grin spread across her face at the feeling. 

"Now," she said under her breath.

Tommy looked at her. 

And water erupted from the ground. 

Dousing the fires around them, dousing Damien until he nearly choked, wrapping around ankles and tugging on them, as False closed her eyes and concentrated on causing mass chaos. 

Tommy yelled a battle-cry, and raised his glistening blue sword to swipe at the sword of another man, knocking it out of his grip. 

False spun in a circle as Damien charged her, putting out her back foot to send him sprawling.

**_It would be so easy to slit his throat._ **

She froze as the words entered her mind - no - no, they weren't hers - 

**_Hello, False._ **

_Sinner._


	43. Arc 2: Chapter 11

**_ Come on, False, you can kill him. It's not like he doesn't deserve it. You  _ know  _ he does. It would be so easy - just a small cut across the neck -  _ **

"SHUT UP!" False screamed, out loud. Damien turned and looked at her as if she were crazy, and even the other two people who'd been coming at her gave her odd looks.

**_ You've already killed so many people. A few more wouldn't hurt. Besides, you'd save your friends. _ **

"I said - " she gasped out, twisting her neck, as if that would somehow dislodge the tiny voice that spoke to her inside it. " - shut the  _ fuck  _ up." 

**_ I saved your life, you know.  _ **

"I don't give a shit!" she snapped angrily. "Get out of my head."

Damien and his goons gave her a wide berth, at this point. Twisting her head, she saw that Tommy had taken out the three people he'd fought against, but he was watching her warily - as if she would attack him - 

**_ Aw, come on, False, it would be so  _ fun _. Just like old times, you know? Just you and I, battling the world. Nothing can stop us now that Kian is dead. _ **

"I will stop you," False hissed softly. 

**_ I'm not a murderer. _ **

"Yes, you are."

**_ We did what we had to do to survive. _ **

"And now that's behind me," False said, gritting her teeth. "Stop trying to bring it back. I don't need you anymore."

**_ Hmm. Don't you? _ **

"No, I don't."

"False? Are you okay?"

False spun to face Tommy's worried teal eyes, and the little voice that was Sinner faded into her head. "I - yeah, I'm fine." She blinked and found wetness dotting the bottom of her lashes, and reached up to wipe them away with a corner of her tunic. "What happened?"

Tommy pointed with his Aspect of the Dragon at Damien, who had his hands thrown up. "They surrendered. What did you say - or do - to them?"

False frowned. "Nothing." 

"You were muttering things to yourself," Tommy pointed out. "Are you  _ sure  _ you're okay?"

"Yup," False snapped, glaring at him. "I'm  _ fine. _ "

Tommy sighed. "Great. What about Deo and Pigicial?" 

False rubbed her face as she walked back towards the gate that let them back into the locker room; the same gate that the two fallen against. She knelt down next to her friends, and was relieved to hear the intake and exhale of breath from both of them. 

"Can you heal them?" Tommy asked eagerly, hovering over her.

She turned and glared at him. "Not  _ here _ . There's not enough...stuff."

"Yet you were somehow able to pull water from parched earth," the teal-eyed boy pointed out.

She rolled her eyes in response. "Help me with them."

False tugged Pigicial onto her shoulders, sheathing her sword, and grabbed his fallen scythe as well. Tommy grabbed Deo, bridal-style, and grabbed his Midas sword as well, walking out of the cheering arena. 

It was only then that False realized that they'd won their sixth battle.

* * *

"Do you have a tree or a plant I could use?" False inquired to Tommy hesitantly, pouring over the nasty burns that littered both Deo and Pigicial's backs. 

"What? Why?" Tommy asked her.

"I need something living," she said warily. "Something I can draw life out of."

He put out his wrist. "Just use my life force."

She swatted his hand away. "No. Do you know how dangerous that is? This isn't a life or death situation. In two days, one of us - "  _ Me.  _ " - will fight waves of monsters. And you said they always picked people that weren't in your favor. So we  _ better  _ fix them, or we're going to have to toss one of them into the arena unconscious." 

Tommy gulped. "Wouldn't want that."

"No," False said. "We wouldn't."

The blonde-haired boy stood up, and False watched him walk into Deo's room, before returning with a beautiful flower in his hands. It was a beautiful swirl of pink, pastel blue, and pastel yellow, raising its bulbous head upwards towards the nonexistent sun. "It's a Fairy Soul," Tommy said. "Only grows in the Nether. Deo thinks that when fairies die, a Fairy Soul replaces it. Only, fairies don't exist. It's just a flower."

False took it, staring at it, and then plucked a few of its seeds from inside the petals, handing them back to Tommy. "It'll do."

She could feel the dim life that lay inside the plant, fading now that it was outside soil. 

False snapped the flower in half. 

Sticky white fluid poured out of the stem, and False reached into the fluids and took the life from the plant. 

It wilted in her hand, shriveling up and turning to dust. 

**_ Looks an awful lot like Kian, doesn't it? _ **

She nearly lost her concentration at the trickle of green water that flowed through the air towards Pigicial and Deo at Sinner's words. 

_ Get out of my head. _

Sinner didn't respond. 

Tommy watched in awe as the liquid-life swirled around in a circle, before False split in half, almost as she did the little streams of water around her. "I wish I could do that."

"We all wish we could have what we don't," False said absently, putting a hand on Deo's back when the life touched the red burns on his back, and the boy moved from the pain. "I wish I could have your power." She shook her head, her blonde hair falling over her face. "Wishing does nothing." 

"It makes you sound like Technoblade," Tommy said, a tinge of amusement coloring his voice.

False blinked. She'd been spending way too much time around Techno, it seemed. "Really? I wouldn't know." 

"Yeah," Tommy said cheerfully. "He was always one for philosophy and history."

False smiled to herself - and then plunged the twin forces of life into Deo and Pigicial, into the back of their hearts.

* * *

" - they just gave up? Just like that?" Deo asked skeptically. 

"Uh-huh," Tommy nodded. "Damien said something along the lines of 'crazy' and 'She's gonna kill us all' when he all but ran past me." 

False stared at the palms of her hands.

Pigicial snorted. "Nice, one, False," he said. "Playing the crazy card."

She put her head up and smiled at the amusement on everyone's faces, except Deo, who just looked confused. "Uno."

Tommy frowned at her. "What does that mean?"

Deo elbowed Tommy. "It means  _ one _ , you idiot."

"Yeah, I'm aware. But  _ why  _ would you say that?"

"Ah, it was a joke," False said, trying to explain herself as she fumbled over her words. "Like...you know, because you mentioned a crazy card, and like, Crazy 8's?"

"Oh."

**_ That's not why you said Uno at all. _ **

_ Shut up. _

**_ We both know you only have one last card to play...Sinner Symmetry.  _ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, yeah, this one's kinda short - but good news: I passed my English final!  
> Probably.  
> Anyway, I took one of the comments to heart, and now this...book (it's way too long to be anything else) will be on Wattpad! Still @Aria_Cinabun ;) go follow me there if you want to.   
> lol  
> yeah okay I'm shamelessly plugging myself  
> but whatever  
> I hope you enjoyed it!


	44. Arc 2: Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yas it be 2am but idc it's UPLOAD TIME

Tommy opened his eyes to stare at the ceiling of the room.

He missed the sun.

He missed the blue sky.

He missed his friends. 

He'd begged Technoblade to let him out, and his mentor had warned him not to because of the war that was going on - but he'd begged, and Techno had finally let him out.

And then he'd fallen through the portal, and had met Deo and Pigicial, where he'd finished the training that Techno had started. 

Tommy wondered how Techno and the others were doing. False had said they were still alive - which was good - but what about Ash, the phoenix, who'd been so small when he'd hatched for Techno?

Tommy had been there when Techno had saved him from the Southerners who'd burned down his village. Had seen his parents die. 

Technoblade was his hero. 

He wondered if the pink-haired man remembered him, the little boy from three years ago, who'd trained under him for barely twelve months before disappearing.

He wondered if Techno cared. If he'd even tried to look for him. 

"Tommy?"

Tommy sat up in bed, running a hand through his hair to stare at Pigicial. "Huh?"

"She's gone, Tommy," Pigicial said in a low voice, fear in his eyes. "They took her. She's been chosen for the semis."

"False?" Tommy said in a horrified whisper. 

Pigicial gave a nod, and Tommy leaped out of bed, grabbing his sword and strapping it to his side before running out of his room, pushing past Pigicial and Deo, who stood in the living room. 

False was nowhere to be found.

And the door to their rooms was open.

"We've got to go!" he said, flinging the door open and taking off at a dead run towards the arena. He heard the footsteps of Pigicial and Deo behind him as they followed him, dodging people from other teams who were on their way to watch the semi-finals. How could they have stolen False from right under all their noses?

The locker room was barred, two demons guarding the entrance. 

"Let us in!" Tommy demanded. 

"No," one of the demons said.

He drew his sword. 

"We're her teammates," Pigicial said, sounding a bit out of breath. "We have to see her."

The demons looked at each other, hefting their halberds. "We said _no_."

"Let them in."

Tommy spun around to see a girl - a she-demon - in the empty hallway. She carried no weapons, and bore no power that he could see, but he was wary of her. 

"B - boss!" one of the demons cried, scrambling to open the door they'd previously been guarding. "Of - of course!"

Tommy could've sworn that the she-demon with red eyes and red hair winked at him before the door was slammed behind the three of them. 

The locker room was dimly lit, the weapon racks polished and shining, the armor hanging on the walls untouched. 

False wasn't even in the locker room - she was in the waiting room, the area that separated the locker room and the arena, in between two sets of closed iron bars. She didn't even notice when Tommy entered, not until he grasped the metal that separated them.

When she turned, Tommy could've sworn that her eyes shown black for the barest bit - but that had to be the lighting; her eyes were blue, just as his. 

"False," he said desperately. "I don't care if we lose." He didn't anymore. "Just survive. Please." He sounded frantic - but the girl was his friend, had been his teacher for the small while that she'd been here. 

False looked at him, a little smile touching her face - and Tommy realized there was so much about her he didn't know. They all knew that she carried secrets, but Tommy wondered how big they were - and if they were secrets she would take to the grave. 

"There will be waves of monsters," Pigicial said over the voice of the announcer, as the demon spoke False's name, and her team name, to the crowd, whose cheering grew louder. "Defeat them. I'd rather have you knocked out then dead."

False reached into her pocket and withdrew a card that she handed through the bars to Tommy.

He took it, and turned it over. 

It was a torn card. 

Half of a blue seven lay in his palm.

False smiled sadly at him, having not said a single word.

And then the gate into the arena opened, and she walked out without looking back.

* * *

**_Very poetic. Giving them half of your card. Does that mean you're giving them half of your secret?_ **

_I will._

**_You'll need me to win this._ **

_It's just monsters, Sinner. Not people. There's a difference._

**_We're monsters. We're also people. I don't see a difference._ **

False sighed at the words in her head, rubbing her forehead. She couldn't say anything to Tommy, Pigicial, and Deo. She'd seen the realization in Pigicial's eyes - he thought she was going to die. Deo wore sunglasses, so she hadn't seen anything from him, but even Jerry the robin was silent on his shoulder, for once. 

And Tommy...she'd handed him the ripped card, even though he hadn't known what it'd meant. The other half lay tucked in her pocket, wrapped up safely. _That_ half of the card meant Sinner. The first half had meant her past. 

The dirt beneath her feet didn't exist. It had been changed to sand, now, and False couldn't feel an ounce of water anywhere. 

Like Tommy had said, the odds were against their team. 

False drew her sword in one solid motion, squinting as the crowd of both humans _and_ demons quieted, all of them turning towards the other gate. 

False's eyes widened when she saw what it was, and she looked over her shoulder at Pigicial and Tommy, who looked surprised as well. So. They hadn't known. 

A demon with a two-handed ax walked towards her. 

Not a monster. 

**_He's not human, False._ **

"He could have a family," she said under her breath, fury radiating from her. "He - he's a person."

**_He's going to try to kill you._ **

"I can't kill him," False said with a small sob. "Not again. Not this time. I _won't._ "

**_Then you will die. Then Tommy will never be free. Then you will never see your friends again. Then Luna will be waiting for you...and you will never come...and she will die, all alone._ **

The demon drew closer. Only ten feet away. Her sword hung numbly at her side, and she was unable to lift it. 

"I CAN'T DO THIS AGAIN!" she said, screaming it into the air. "I can't make this choice."

Perplexed whispers filled the air from the crowd at her words, but False didn't care. The demon paused, a confused look coming over his face, before he raised his ax and charged her.

False flung herself to the side, refusing to lift her sword and plunge it into the demon's open flank.

She wouldn't.

Not again.

* * *

"Why isn't she fighting back?" Deo said in a horrified voice, watching as False rolled onto the ground. 

Tommy didn't answer. He couldn't. He didn't know.

* * *

**_KILL HIM!_ **

"NO!" she howled. 

Tears streamed down her face as the butt of the ax hit her side and she was thrown to the ground, her sword spinning to the other side, too far away for her to get.

Her head spun as she raised herself on her hands and knees. 

**_END THIS!_ **

"NO!"

* * *

"FIGHT BACK!" Pigicial screamed, and Tommy winced from the severity in his friend's frightened tone. "FIGHT BACK!"

* * *

False's vision blurred, and she raised her head to stare at the demon who stood above her, his ax raised high in the air.

She blinked, and she could've sworn a woman was standing behind him, one with black hair, a purple dress, and violet eyes. Her skin was tinged a blueish shade. 

_She's not human._

Sinner was silent, for once. 

_"Choices must be made, child,"_ a voice said in her mind - and for once, it wasn't the screeching, demanding tone of Sinner. _"You make your choice, or you die now. Your path is a hard one, but you will survive. The person who stands in front of you aims to kill you. You must kill him to persevere."_

False blinked again, and the woman was gone. Instead, the head of an ax blade descended towards her face, and she could've sworn she heard the screams of her teammates. 

Her hands felt the cool touch of metal, and she brought them up instinctively. Two swords, made of dark grey metal and glowing with blue runes, stopped the ax blade from beheading her. She stared into the red eyes of the demon, who looked confused at the manifestation of the weapons.

And then she retracted one of her weapons and sliced his neck.

* * *

"What the hell..." Tommy muttered, staring as the blonde-haired girl rolled to the side and came up standing, two swords in her hands, dark and glowing with runes he couldn't read. "Where did those come from?"

"No idea," Deo muttered. 

"Thank goodness for that," Pigicial croaked, his voice sounding broken from all the screaming he'd done at False. 

* * *

She felt bile in her throat at how easily she'd killed the demon. How... _simple_ it had been.

How many times she had done it. 

**_Well done._ **

_I don't want your compliments._

**_Well, you get them nonetheless._ **

"ROUND ONE, COMPLETE!" the announcer shouted out.

The gate opened, and two more demons sauntered out, one with a sword and a shield, and another with a halberd, just like the guards that had grabbed her in the morning. 

_I can't do this._

**_Oh, come on. You've done this many times._ **

_I don't_ want _to do this._

**_Oh, pish-posh. They're just demons, False. It's not like they're human._ **

_I -_

**_Do this. Or die. Choose wisely. We all heard what that lady said. Well...at least, you and I did._ **

* * *

Tommy clutched the half of the Uno card in his fist, still unsure of why False had given it to him. It meant something to her, surely - and it probably had something to do with what she'd said two nights prior. Of what, he wasn't sure. 

"I give her four more rounds," Deo muttered. 

He heard the oof as Pigicial elbowed the blind man. Jerry squawked, ruffling his feathers in annoyance. 

_Come on, False,_ he thought desperately. _Live._

* * *

**_What is your name?_ **

_False._

**_No. That is_ not _your name. That is the name of the little girl who lived in Hermitville - not the girl who survived the horrors of the Southern Kingdom. That is the name of the girl who played with sticks, who laughed while eating strawberries. What is your name?_ **

_False._

**_False..._ **

_Symmetry._

And so she raised her swords in the direction of her enemies, as her eyes flashed black, as she had done so many times, so many ages ago. 

And Sinner Symmetry went to battle once again. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter made me cry multiple times as I wrote it (while I should've been studying for my calculus final but OH WELL I probably didn't fail that...)  
> Hope you guys *sniff* enjoyed!
> 
> imma go cry for False now


	45. Arc 2: Chapter 13

**_ Good. _ **

False's eyes snapped open, and she brought her swords up in her defensive position to look at the two demons who walked towards her, unknowing of her internal struggle. 

_ Sinner's right,  _ she realized.  _ I can be both. I can be Sinner...and I can be False. Cleo and Stress were right. People do change when they grow up. I am not the little girl who they knew, but they are not the children I knew either. I am not  _ Sinner _ \- but I am not just False. I am so much more than that.  _

And as silently and deadly as always, False slipped into battle. 

It was over in seconds. Just seconds. Two swords, two beating hearts. So simple. 

**_ Good. _ **

* * *

"Holy shit," Pigicial muttered, and Tommy fought to keep his jaw from dropping. "When did she learn that?"

Tommy clenched his teeth. "I think she's always known that."

"But why? Why keep it a secret?"

"So they would pick her," Deo said in a mortified whisper. "She  _ knew _ they would pick her, if she acted the weakest. False knew, and she played us all."

* * *

By the fourth round, False was slipping in blood. 

By the seventh, she had blood splattered across her chest, dripping on her swords, flecks of it stuck to her skin like glue. She hated it - even if it was demon blood, it was red, red as their eyes, and it reminded her of the times when she'd battle the Northerners in wars. 

It reminded her of a time when she hadn't been able to make her own decisions, hadn't been able to do anything by her choice, had been  _ engaged  _ to the Black Knight - had been Sinner Symmetry, had been the Queen of Hearts.

The crowd was dead silent. They watched her win, they watched her kill every demon, they watched as, by the tenth round, she danced around the ten demons, and one by one, killed them. 

One. 

By.

One. 

Sinner's voice was silent. 

For once, her head was empty...quiet. Blissful, blessed silence.

And when all was silent on her little battlefield, False was left panting, her dark swords glowing with blue light as she stared towards the announcer, who scrambled for his megaphone.

"ROUND TEN, COMPLETE!" came the piercing screech, and False winced at the ringing that came after it. "THE PURPLE PANDAS COMPLETED TEN, AND THE GREEN GHASTS COMPLETED ELEVEN, SO IF THE LIME LLAMAS CAN WIN THIS ONE, THEY MOVE ON TO THE  _ FINALS!" _

False took a deep breath, turning towards the door. She refused to look at her teammates, sure that their faces would be ones filled with disgust and hatred.

* * *

"She's going to do it," Pigicial muttered, his eyes wide, his knuckles white as he gripped the bars and stared at the bloody massacre in the arena. "She's going to  _ win _ ." 

"Who is this girl?" Deo asked.

But nobody was able to respond.

* * *

"WHAT'S THAT, FOLKS? LOOKS LIKE WE HAVE A...WILDCARD!"

False gritted her teeth as she stared towards the gates that drew upwards once again, prepared to face the final battle, and whatever wildcard the announcer had talked about. 

She was expecting a hundred demons. She was expecting another team - humans, perhaps, to kill. She was expecting Naria to teleport in. She was expecting anything but this.

Anything but the blood-red phoenix that bumbled into the arena, its black eyes focused on False, as it screeched with triumph.

* * *

"Is that a phoenix?" Pigicial said in awe. 

"Yep," Tommy said, dread filling him. "Yep, it is." Ash came to mind at the thought - but Ash wasn't as big as this, and Ash had Technoblade, and Ash wasn't black and red. 

"She's dead," Deo said with finality. 

Nobody argued with him.

* * *

False saw with horror that its beautiful scarlet wings had been clipped, and that metal cuffs lay on its two legs as it flapped its wings, its beady eyes focused on her. She saw feathers missing and ripped, and white scars on its body. 

_ It's hurt.  _

And False realized that she couldn't kill it. 

Fuck Sinner.

It wasn't corrupted - it was hurt, much as she had been. It was in a place it didn't want to be, and lashed out at other because of it. She wondered how long it had been down here. Her heart ached of Luna, to see Luna in this horrific state.

The phoenix screeched again, and barreled down towards her, flapping its wings, though it was unable to fly. 

_ STOP!  _

False let out a shout in her mind as she tossed her swords to either side of her, to cries of surprise from her teammates behind her, to shouts from the stands, specifically the ones that had been cheering her on. She reached out in her mind, much as she did for Luna, though the pathway between her and the moon phoenix was open, and shouted into the darkness.

The phoenix skidded to a half inches from her, towering over her, its cracked and scarred beak open, ready to peck her skull open. But it didn't move, its dark eyes curious, staring at her. 

_ Hello?  _ False ventured again.

A pathway full of brambles and darkness opened up.  _ You smell of phoenix.  _ It was a distinctly male voice, full of pain and horror. 

_ I'm a phoenix rider,  _ False told the male phoenix.  _ What's your name? _

_ Rust. _

The name was fired quickly down their temporary conversation path, wavering. 

_ I'm False,  _ she offered up.  _ I have a moon phoenix in the Overworld named Luna. I think you'd like her.  _

Rust opened his beak and hissed at her.  _ I have been here for nearly fifty years. My rider died long ago. I don't like other phoenixes.  _

_ And I understand. _

_ Do you?  _ Rust asked her, eyeing her.

_ Yes.  _

_ They told me to kill you,  _ Rust told her.  _ They said to bathe the sand with your blood, and I would be free.  _

_ They've been saying that for dozens of years, haven't they?  _ False asked the phoenix. 

_ Yes. _

_ Then why do you listen? _

_ Because one day they may be telling the truth. _

_ I thought so too,  _ False said gently Rust.  _ But I had to escape on my own. _

_ You are troubled? _

_ Yes.  _

_ Plagued by nightmares? _

_ Yes. _

_ Voices in your head? _

_ Yes.  _

_ Then you do understand. _

"More than I wish I did," False said in a quiet voice. "More than I want to."

_ My lifespan is almost over, False,  _ Rust said.  _ I cannot fit through any portal that can be created. I hoped they'd create a bigger one - but I believe you, when you said they never would.  _ He dipped his head to stare at her.  _ I have been killing humans for a long time, and all of them are greedy, their heads full of blood, and the want for power. I cannot sense that from you.  _

False swallowed at Rust's words.  _ Most humans are greedy.  _ She hesitated.  _ You said your rider died fifty years ago, yet there were no riders fifty years ago.  _

_ Yes, there were. There are hundreds of riders in Menoa.  _

False blinked, and then frowned. "I've never heard of Menoa." 

_ Then we come from different places. _

"You're saying," False said, with realization. "That there is a place - called Menoa - with hundreds of phoenix riders?"

_ Yes. Do you not have any, where you are from?  _

_ Four. Only four, all of them born in the past five years.  _

Rust let out a sad chirp.  _ I am truly sorry, then, for the state of your kingdom. _

False laughed softly. "Yeah. It's pretty terrible."

Rust dipped his head.  _ Say hello to your phoenix for me. _

False stared at him. "What?"

Rust ignored her, and turned his head towards the grainy rock that separated them from the sky.  _ I choose Rebirth, Goddess of Change. I choose to live again, elsewhere. You gave me the option, and I take it now. I earned it.  _

** It shall be granted. **

False jumped at the voice that filled her mind, one that distinctly reminded her of the same voice that she'd heard before she'd felt the swords in her hand. 

And then Rust burst into flames - until he was nothing more than black and red feathers, and fine white dust that settled until the sand. 

False was left there, staring at the remains of the once-proud phoenix, who had reminded her of herself, who had chosen  _ rebirth,  _ whatever that meant. 

She reached out and grabbed a scarlet feather that drifted downwards, turning it in her hand. 

And then she turned towards the announcer, bending down and picking up her swords as she tucked the red feather behind her ear, in memory of the proud phoenix once known as Rust. 

But nobody in the audience moved.

They were all too busy staring.


	46. Arc 2: Chapter 14

False knew that Tommy and the rest of her teammates would be waiting for her in their rooms - so she didn't go there. 

Instead, she went to Camille's room, even though she barely knew the girl, and knocked on the door to the Gray Gorillas. 

Camille opened the door, a grin on her face as usual. "That was  _ amazing _ !" she said to False, hugging her tightly. 

False winced. Of course, Camille knew - she'd probably been in the crowd. "Is anybody else here?" she asked warily. 

"Nah," Camille said. "They're all out partying - at  _ your  _ party, I dare say." She squinted at False. "Shouldn't you be there?"

"No," False said shortly, as Camille stepped aside and let her into the identical-looking room, that mirrored that of her own, minus a few more homely touches, such as a plant on the dining table, and a painting of a gorilla on the wall. "I don't like parties."

"Me neither," Camille sighed in relief. "Too many guys asking me out on dates." She scrunched her nose. "They should know by now I don't swing that way."

False let out a surprised laugh. "Well, that's not the reason  _ I  _ didn't go, but you go girl!" She threw Camille a thumbs-up. "Anybody in mind?"

"Oh - yeah, there's this girl Above," Camille said fondly. "I confessed to her a few days before...you know."

False fell silent, the grin sliding right off her face. "Right. How long have you been here?"

"Only nine months," Camille sighed. "I'd hoped to win, but while my teammates are fun, they aren't particularly good at fighting. I heard there was this guy on another team that told everyone he would bring an army down and save us all, but that was thirteen months ago." She threw up her hands. "Someone Above must know about this place."

"They wipe the memories," False said quietly. 

"What?" Camille asked her. 

False looked her friend in the eyes. "They wipe the memories of the winners, so they can never find this place."

"They can do that?" Camille asked in a shocked whisper.

"Where are you from, Camille?" False inquired.

"I - the South," the asian girl answered. "South...north-east, if you catch my drift." She blushed. "If you must know, the Southerners aren't all evil."

"I'm Southern myself," False said. "Don't worry." She tilted her head at Camille. "And...how old are you?"

"Twenty-three."

"You're four years older than me," False said, inclining her head. "You would've been twelve."

"What happened when I - oh." Camille winced. "Yeah, I remember that. For us, they took the boys in the village, two years later, when I was fourteen - but I remember hearing about the neighboring villages' girls come back with no memories. I...just didn't think that demons could quite do that, even though I know some of them are mages." She slapped her forehead. "Why didn't I  _ think  _ of that?"

False smiled grimly. "I'm going to miss you, Camille," she said softly. "I promise you that you'll get out of here someday. If we win, and we get our memories wiped, I will try my hardest to fight back. My friends will wonder where I've been gone for the past few months, and if I can't answer...then questions will be asked. Besides, the portal opened up in the middle of the battlefield; they know I'm on a different plane of existence."

"Battlefield?" Camille mouthed. 

"Right," False sighed. "The battle between the North and the South."

Camille let out a loud whoop, and False cringed in surprise. "Sorry. But that's  _ amazing _ ! Did you win?"

She shrugged. "I fell through the portal. I don't know if we won or lost."  _ Since Kian died, I assume we won...but I'm not sure.  _

"Oh, that sucks," Camille said, scrunching up her nose. "Who's going to take the Southern throne? Surely not a Northerner?"

"Ah, no," False said with a smile. "The lost princess of the south was found, and she doesn't support her parents. She was fighting with us."

"Damn," Camille grumbled. "I wish I could've been there."

False nodded her head in recognition.

"Girl, we need to stop moping around talking about wars," Camille said suddenly. "You're probably trying to avoid your teammates, aren't you? They didn't know, I'm guessing?"

False winced softly and nodded.

Camille's eyes brightened and she popped up, grabbing False's arm. "I have a brilliant idea!" She dragged False over to the dining room table, which was absolutely covered in paint and brushes and half-painted canvases. False stared at the mess in disbelief. 

"How do you eat?"

"Oh, we don't eat here," Camille answered flippantly. She tossed False a canvas. "You know how to paint?"

False blinked, staring at the white canvas in her hands. "I - no." Maybe when she'd been younger. Not  _ now _ , certainly. 

"Have you ever painted before?"

"...no."

"Girl!" Camille shouted. "You have a deprived childhood."

False didn't answer that, not as she placed the canvas in the easel and took the glass of water that Camille handed her. "Where did you get all this?"

"I stole it," the girl answered.

"From who?"

"You, actually," Camile said.

"...what?"

"Well, technically, from  _ Tommy _ ," Camille said with a laugh. "You know his scam shack? Or drug shack, as his teammates like to call it sometimes?" False nodded. "He has all kinds of stuff that he's gotten out of people. And since he doesn't do art, this stuff was kind of just lying in a chest - and he hasn't noticed it go missing, so I think I'm good." 

False took the offered paint, and dipped her paintbrush into a pretty blue shade. "What...exactly am I supposed to paint?"

"Anything you want," Camille said with a huge smile. 

* * *

They were waiting for her. 

She knew they were. 

It was nearly two in the morning when False opened the door, completely covered head to toe in paint - she and Camille had gotten into a fight once...or twice - her canvas under her arm. 

When she was younger, she'd used to draw dragons in her sketchbook, even in the Southern Castle. But as she'd grown up, that sketchbook had slowly been forgotten. 

She still knew how to draw dragons, though. And it hadn't taken that much effort to change it into a phoenix with navy blue and snow-white feathers. 

Until Luna had been staring back at her, her beak raised high, that adventurous look in her eyes. Until False had felt tears drip down her face as she stared at the body of her friend. 

Tommy shot up from his position on the couch when she swung the door open. "What happened to you?"

"I went and I painted something," she answered shortly, without looking at them, and walking towards her room.

Deo blocked the doorway. "Um, no, you're not going anywhere."

She glared at him. "Get out of my way."

"No."

False didn't have the heart to push him out of the way or twist his arm like she wanted to. "Whatever." She put the painting - backward - against the wall, and crossed her arms. "What do you guys want?"

"Answers," Pigicial said angrily. "Starting with -  _ who the hell are you? _ "

"I'm False." 

"Are you sure about that?" Deo said. "You could be lying - you know, just like everything else we know about you."

"I'm not  _ lying _ !" False said in annoyance. "What I said earlier was true. All of it. I just left out a few important details."

"Like what?" Tommy asked her. 

False clenched her jaw and debated lying to them again...but she couldn't. She couldn't look at them again, for the third time, and tell them an outright lie. "When I was eight years old, the Dragon Guards took my friends Stress and Cleo to their capital." She held up a finger when Deo opened his mouth. "And they took me as well."

"That doesn't change anything," Deo pointed out. "So what, you lost a few months worth of memories? You were eight."

False glared him into silence. "Stress and Cleo went home."

"Yeah - "

"I. Did. Not."

Pigicial looked taken aback. "...what?"

"You never wondered why I was forced into a marriage in a village that I grew up in," False told them quietly. "Because I wasn't. I was in the Southern castle for nearly nine years before I escaped, and in those nine years, I was married to Kian." 

They didn't respond to her, looking shocked. 

"I went back home, at seventeen. But I couldn't go to my village, back to my friends, because I didn't feel like I belonged with them. I was a different person, and I hated myself because of it. So I watched over them, for nearly two years, before the Dragon Guards came to every village, putting up warning signs that  _ I  _ was a dangerous murderer, that  _ I  _ was a shapeshifter. One of my oldest friends saw me holding that poster, and so my village leader called the Dragon Guards on me - because my entire village thought that I had died ages ago. And I refused to tell them the truth." 

"Well, that's dumb," Tommy muttered. 

False ignored him. "The Dragon Guards came, and so did Kian. I fought him, he stabbed me. I lost. Simple as that. So he took me, and Cleo, and Stress back to the Southern Castle. He took me because I was his  _ beloved _ , he took Cleo because she is Clementine Evalangine, and Stress - because I had brought her back to life using my magic."

"Wait...so your childhood friend is the princess of the south?" Pigicial asked. 

"I'm not done yet," False replied. "But yes, Cleo is the princess of the south. Kian had power over me. He brought me to the edge of a cliff, and told me he would kill Stress if I didn't kill the little girl he had in his arms."

"That's messed up," Deo voiced.

"I couldn't. So he burned her alive - and then he came for Stress." False took a deep breath, willing herself not to cry. She was stronger than that - and crying would do nothing except give her an inability to talk. 

"Holy shit," Pigicial said.

"I didn't know it at the time, but as I said before, Stress is an ice mage.  _ The  _ ice mage. She's the Ice Queen, now." False hesitated when she saw three jaws drop. "I know. What a coincidence."

"Talk about  _ lucky _ ," Tommy muttered.

"Stress used her magic to blast at Kian, and in doing so, knocked herself off the edge of the cliff. And so we both fell over."

"But you're still alive," Pigicial said cryptically.

"In that time period," False continued. "Cleo had found three phoenix eggs. Three phoenix eggs - that she touched, and hatched. For all of us. When I woke up, there was a moon phoenix, whom I later learned was called Luna, on me. And Stress got Glacier - and Cleo got Rowan." She bent down and flipped over her canvas. "I'm a phoenix rider."

"Yeah, okay, that explains a lot," Deo muttered. 

"That's so cool!" Tommy gushed. "That means you actually met Technoblade!"

False smiled. "I fought him, too. I've won a couple of times."

"That's  _ amazing _ !" Tommy said. 

"Anyway, Cleo thought Stress and I were dead. She went back home, with Rowan, and she convinced our friends to leave Hermitville - our village - and go start a revolution with her. Of course, she needed allies - so she sent a letter to the Northern rulers - that would be Technoblade - asking for support. By that time, Luna and Glacier had gotten old enough so that we could fly on them...and Techno taught me how to ride her. If I count whatever we do together as riding." False smiled in memory. "So I met my friends again - who thought, for the second time, that I was dead."

"This would be the third, then..." Pigicial said, trailing off.

"Fourth, actually," False corrected. "Techno, Cleo, Iskall, Wels, and I held the passageway between the mountains against an army for hours upon end. I ended up fighting Kian...and losing. He stabbed me in my spine, and I nearly died from it. I would've...except for Stress leaped at him with daggers made of ice and would've chopped his head off. That's also when her crown appeared on her head. 

"When I woke up, I was paralyzed from the waist down." False kept her eyes downcast, unable to look her teammates in the eyes. "And while Skeppy and BBH were able to make a saddle so I could still ride on Luna, I was unable to be useful. In that time period, Stress found information regarding our past lives - and our current reincarnations."

"You - you - you - " Pigicial started, unable to find the words. 

"My name was Ziyah, three hundred years ago," False nodded. "And I died holding the passageway  _ South _ against corrupted mages. Alone. Cleo - Clemintine - was Queen Ivy. And Stress was Queen Riarna, her great-grandmother."

"Damn," Deo whistled. "That's kind of...a lot to take in." 

"Yeah," False whispered. "It was. But then the day of the battle came, and Techno, Stress, Cleo, and I led an army south. Where we met on the battlefield with the southern army...the same battlefield where I drew the life force from Kian, restored the use of my legs, and fell through the portal...here." She shrugged. "That's my story."

"What about Sinner?" Tommy asked skeptically. 

**_ Yeah, False, what about me? I'm important too. _ **

_ Shut up. _

She gritted her teeth. "You can ask her her part of the story...when we get out of here."

"Fair enough," Deo said with a shrug. 

Pigicial eyed the swords she had strapped to her back. "And what about those?"

"I... _ think  _ a Goddess gave them to me," False answered slowly. "Not really sure."

"Wanna have a go?" Pigicial grinned, motioning to the scythe that lay against the wall.

False felt a slow smile come across her face. "Sure."


	47. Arc 2: Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may be wondering -   
> Oh, Aria, don't you update in like 5 hours?  
> yes, yes I do.
> 
> ITZ DOUBLE UPDATE DAY (because I may have gone crazy last night and written 5 chapters)  
> MAKE SURE TO WATCH FOR THE NEXT ONE, COMING AT 9 PM PTD (that's ~ 4 hours and 20 minutes from now)

False sheathed her swords for the  _ third  _ time as she knocked down Pigicial - for the  _ third  _ time - into the sand of the arena. Her team was alone, now, as there were only the finals left in the Championships; and the other teams didn't need to do any more training; they were out of the competition. She was honestly kind of glad to be alone - False didn't really enjoy the stares she sometimes got, in the Overworld when training with Techno  _ and  _ whenever she'd been practicing with Pigicial.

"I wasted my time trying to teach you," Pigicial grumbled, as False helped him up. "I could've spent my time doing something  _ far  _ more productive." 

"Like what?" she said with a small smirk. "There's literally nothing else to do down here."

"More  _ myth-busting _ , of course," Pigicial answered, picking up his scythe, and looking over as if he was about to charge her again. 

"Uh-uh," False said. "You've lost three times. I'd feel bad fighting you again." She turned to Deo and Tommy. "Any of you two want to go?"

"We're good," Tommy called over to her. "I enjoyed seeing Pigicial humiliated." 

"Excuse me," Pigicial grumbled. 

False elbowed him lightly. "Don't worry." She raised her voice. "I'm sure Pigicial enjoyed watching you get humiliated when you tried to beat me, Mr. Water Mage."

"I resent that," she heard Tommy mutter. "You said it yourself - I'm more powerful than you."

"Yeah, but not more skilled," False replied with a tiny grin. "You could be carrying a club, but if you don't know how to use it, you're honestly better off weaponless."

"You're comparing my magic to...a club that I don't know how to use?" Tommy asked in disbelief. 

"It was a metaphor," she said.

"So, yes," Pigicial confirmed.

"You're not wrong," False said, winking at him. "A club that said person only knows how to swing one way. Sure, it's a powerful swing, but it's only one move that can easily be avoided."

Tommy turned to Deo. "Come on, Deo, help me here. They're killing me."

"Nah," Deo said. "I ain't helping what  _ you  _ started."

* * *

"Waves are  _ so  _ much easier than this shit," Tommy muttered, as False watched him try to spin three small balls of water in a circle around him, much like a spinning triangle. "I don't see how this is useful."

"Not specifically  _ that _ ," False told him. "What you're learning is just a neat party trick. What I'm trying to teach you is how to move the water any way you want, in small portions." 

"How is  _ that _ useful, though?" Tommy said, as one of his balls of water wobbled, and False watched half of it drip onto the sandy floor. 

She sighed. "Like what I did before, after Deo and Pigicial got flamed. I used small tendrils of water to trip up some of our attackers. Sometimes, a wave isn't useful. Say one of your allies is fighting the person you want to take out, and you're injured, so you can't jump into the fight with them - or the hallway is too narrow. Something like that. You wouldn't  _ want  _ to use a wave to take them out, because you would hurt your ally in the process. What you'd want to do is use your water power to go around your ally, in small portions, and attack the enemy from there." False inclined her head. "Or say you want to retrieve something from a river. I've done that with an arrow to clean it - tossed it into a river, and retrieved it using water magic. You wouldn't  _ use  _ a singular wave to do that, because that would be stupid and unnecessary."

"This is stupid and unnecessary," Tommy muttered under his breath, one of his eyes open and the other closed as he tried to concentrate on the third ball of water, which was shaking in midair. 

"No," False said, grabbing ahold of the shaking water ball and tugging it so it smashed into the ground. "It's not."

"Hey!"

"Water mages are the most common type of mages, Tommy," False said. "You need to learn how to control your magic, and  _ keep it.  _ You cannot let enemy mages turn your power against yourself."

Tommy threw up his hands, letting the rest of the balls of water fall to the ground in tiny splashes. "But you said I was powerful! How come you can beat me?"

"I can beat you because I know more than you," False told him. "You can toss wave after wave at me, and I could never stop them.  _ However,  _ since you just let your magic flow, I can  _ alter  _ the magic you send at me, and allow a part to be created in between it, like what I did in the arena...twice. You cannot just let your magic flow on its own, just as you cannot let a child choose what to eat by itself. You have to guide it one-hundred percent of the way through, or you shouldn't guide it at all. You would be wasting your strength over and over and over because it takes so little effort to alter your magic - you don't have any blocks stopping other water mages, like me, from changing it. You  _ are  _ powerful, Tommy, but you need to have more  _ control _ ."

Tommy stared at her. "Honestly," he said finally. "You're a much better teacher than Technoblade."

"Don't compare us," False snapped. "I cannot teach how to swing a sword, or block something, because bad memories accompany it. I taught myself how to use magic, so I do know some things about the mental blocks you may face when trying to learn control. Techno is good at other things." She let out a breath. "He taught me how to be a phoenix rider."

"You know, before I left, Ash was  _ just  _ old enough for Techno to have ridden him around twice," Tommy said in the background. "He was so cute, so small...I'm guessing he's bigger now." There was a sad tone in his voice. "I remember when Techno found the egg, too. It was really one of the reasons why he'd come to my village, because there had been news of an odd egg in a cave nearby. My little sister had carried it home, and my parents had put it on an altar for all to see. We called it a dragon egg, but now, of course, I know better. Then the South came, and my family was killed. Techno, Skeppy, and Etho came in and saved me, and I'd heard all about him; he was my hero then, and still is now - but he saved me, and when he touched the phoenix egg...it hatched for him, and Ash was born."

False was silent as she considered Tommy's words. "He never talked about how Ash came to be," she said finally. "Never talked about you."

"Yeah, well," Tommy said, his teal eyes flashing with distaste. "Maybe he forgot all about me."

"I doubt that," she answered quickly. "He probably didn't want to talk about it because it hurt so much. He probably thinks he failed you."

Tommy looked confused. "What? I'm the one that chose to go out scouting, even after he warned me."

"Yes, but if he hadn't given in..." False trailed off.

"...I would still be there," Tommy said quietly. "Wouldn't I?"

"Yes."

"But then I wouldn't have met Pigicial or Deo," the teal-eyed boy pointed out. He considered her for a moment. "I would have met you...eventually, but never under these circumstances. Techno was teaching me how to use a sword, but I would never have completed my training with real-life instances."

False smirked. "You haven't completed your training," she said, lowering the pitch in her voice to mimic Techno. "'Warriors can never be too good.' Oh, and of course, the famous, 'Technoblade never dies' statement." 

Tommy waved her off, a grin on his face. "Yeah, yeah, I know well enough about the things he says." He looked at False. "I don't think my water magic would have ever manifested."

False frowned. "What?"

"It was the first year I was here," Tommy started. "The match before the semi-finals - which Deo lost, of course. There was a guy with a bow. He was going to kill Pigicial, who was too busy fighting another guy, and there was a barrel of water, and I...just  _ acted _ ." He shook his head. "I didn't realize I was a water mage for a while. I thought some Goddess or God stepped in and listened to my pleas. It was only when I realized that I could feel the water in the cups in front of me during dinner that I understood I could become a water mage." 

"Same," False said with a sigh. "My whole life, Kian was waiting for the magic we all knew I had to manifest. When I ran away at seventeen, I still hadn't had it happen yet. When I was eighteen, I saved my friend, Zedaph, from drowning. He thought it was a miracle, but I was watching, and I knew." She shrugged. "And so I practiced, using that river. Day after day after day after day until I reached my limit. Weeks after weeks, months...and now, more than a year." 

"Was it lonely?" Tommy asked her suddenly. "Looking at your friends, and not being  _ with  _ them?"

False gave him a sad smile. "Yes. It was the loneliest period of my life, even lonelier than being in the Southern Castle, because I truly had nobody. In the castle, there were a few servants I got to talk to every once in a while. There were things I hated doing, but at least they kept me busy. But out in the forest...all I had was my brain, and so I would think. Get lost in my memories. It was a never-ending cycle."

Tommy was silent for a moment as he debated her words. "False," he said suddenly. "Do you think we'll win tomorrow? That we'll finally get out of here, and get to return home?" There was a film of hope in his eyes, one that False knew hadn't been there in a while. 

She regarded him. "I think we will. But I'm warning you, you may not remember Pigicial or Deo, or meeting me. Naria said that they wiped the memories of the people who left. That's why nobody has ever talked about the Nether. I was wrong when they said they killed the winners."

"I - " Tommy started, staring at her in horror. "I won't remember Pigicial or Deo? Or you?"

False shook her head slowly. "I'm sorry, Tommy. I didn't know if we would get this far, so I never told you when I first came back from speaking to Naria."

"Isn't there anything we can do?" Tommy burst out.

She shook her head again. "They hold all the cards. The portal back to the Overworld is theirs to command. They won't open it until our memories are gone. Even if we fought, or blackmailed the portal mage...their sheer numbers would overwhelm us."

Tommy withdrew his hand from his pocket, holding the torn Uno card False had given to him before the arena battle she'd fought. "Speaking of cards...what's this about?"

False hesitated before answering. "Pigicial referred to when I screamed nonsense at Damien as a 'crazy card'. I said 'Uno'...which at the time, none of you understood. It meant - "

" - that you had one final card left to play," Tommy whispered, his face white. "I get it now. Your secrets...as cards." He turned the torn card over in his palm. "Your last one was that you were an amazing fighter. But why...why give me half of the card?"

False didn't answer him.

"...because you have another part of that secret yet to share," Tommy murmured, to himself more than False. He looked up at her. "Are you ever going to tell us?"

"No," False told him.

"But why?!" Tommy exploded angrily. "Our memories are going to be wiped anyway! Why not just tell us, and have us forget?"

"Because then you will hate me!" False screamed at him. "You will hate me, you will despise me, and worst of all, you  _ won't trust me _ . The most important thing in a team is not a skill - but trust. Trust in each other."

"I don't trust you," Tommy retorted. "Not with what you just said."

"Yes, you do," False shot back. "You do trust me. Right now, you're wondering how bad of a secret I have that will make you not trust me afterward. You still trust me - but you wonder whether you should."

"Is it really that bad?" Tommy asked weakly.

False chuckled. "Yes. Yes, it is." 


	48. Arc 2: Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! If you HAVE NOT READ the previous chapter (that I uploaded today, as well) please do so!

The runes on her swords - netherite metal, Pigicial had said, after taking a closer look at it - flashed in the fire that surrounded the edges of the arena. 

Four...against eight. 

The Green Ghasts, seven men and one woman, stood opposing them. The arena seats were filled to the brim, the cheering making False winced. She saw giant green stuffed llamas and stuffed green ghasts blend together in the crowd. Smirking, False watched the signs float in the group, a huge mess of green. Seriously - what were the chances that two green teams - the Green Ghasts and the Lime Llamas - had won that year? Very small, probably.

"What are you smiling about?" Pigicial grumbled at her, his scythe clutched tightly in his hands as they waited for the announcer to announce - ha - the start of the battle. 

"Green," was all False said in response. 

Tommy snorted. "Yeah, I noticed that too."

Deo coughed. "Come on guys, this is our chance to get out of here. We can talk about greenery together when we actually see the trees of the Overworld again."

False and Tommy's eyes met behind Pigicial and Deo's back, and False cringed at the look the teal-eyed boy sent her. As if it was her job to tell them what Naria had told her.

Okay, yeah, it probably was - but she didn't care. They didn't need to know until  _ just  _ before it happened. 

Tommy continued to glare at her, but finally turned away when she proceeded to ignore him. 

"LET THE FINALS BEGIN!"

False winced at the sudden ringing of her eardrums; caused by the sheer force the unknown announcer had shouted. At her side, she saw the rest of her teammates wince as well.

She squinted at the enemy, and saw the guys on the Green Ghasts step aside to reveal the girl, who drew back her bow in one smooth motion and fired. 

Her eyes widened. "ARROW!" she screamed. 

False felt the  _ zing  _ it made as it hurtled through the air, and she pushed Deo out of the way just in time for it to embed in the wall behind her, the quill still shivering at impact. 

They couldn't wait this one out. 

"Zig-zag," she heard Pigicial order, as she started her charge forward. 

She was lucky only one person had a bow. False brought her swords up to cut arrows from the air more than she liked to admit. As she glanced back, every so often, she saw the determined - and unhurt - faces of her teammates.

False met two of the fighters at a dead sprint, blocking both of their attacks with two light parries, ducking under their arms, and attempting to elbow one of them in the gut. He was taller than her, and contained more muscle, so it didn't really work, and False had to duck another blow.

The clash of blades was the only sound she heard, and it was music to her ears; familiar music. The ring of metal against metal was normal to her, and she danced around the two men, trying to knock them down without hurting them.

**_ Kill them. _ **

Sinner's voice filled her mind, and False was so startled that one of the blades of the first man managed to trace a small line across her face. 

**_ Kill them. _ **

"No," she growled under her breath, as she kicked out the legs of the man who had nicked her. He landed on the ground with a thump, scrambling up, but False had the blade at his throat, her other one pointed at the groin of the second man. They both froze as she snarled at them, warning them to stay down.

"STOP!"

False turned her head to see the girl with the bow - and an arrow pointed directly at Tommy's chest. Her heart froze. 

Pigicial stopped his battle with his two enemies instantly, dropping his scythe. Deo stopped his battle as well, but he didn't put down his golden sword, Jerry circling around them, chirping. 

"Surrender," the brown-haired girl said, eyeing False's weapons. "Or your friend dies."

"Let him go!" False demanded suddenly. "Or your two guys die!"

The brown-haired girl shook her head coldly. "Oh no, False. I've watched you fight, unwilling to hurt your enemies. I watched your semi-finals. You nearly had a mental breakdown, before something changed, and you slaughtered all those demons." She gave a half-hearted, cynical grin. "I don't think you could kill humans." She drew the bowstring back further, her arms trembling with the effort to not release the tension, the arrowhead merely two feet from Tommy's unguarded chest. "So, what will it be?"

"Don't do it, False," Tommy said breathlessly, frozen in place. "You can win without me. Don't let me hold you back from freedom."

False hesitated, unsure. Pigicial and Deo were looking at her imploringly, begging her to do something.

After a few more seconds of silence, the brown-haired girl shrugged. "Fine, then."

"NO!" False howled, watching as the girl released the fingers she'd been using to hold back the bowstring. 

She watched Tommy's eyes widen in horror.

False whipped back her hand and threw her sword.

It spun in a circle, fast as lightning, into the space between Tommy and the brown-haired girl, just as the teal-eyed boy dived to the side; her sword knocking the arrow  _ just  _ off course enough so it scratched the side of Tommy's arm, instead of burying itself in his heart. 

**_ Kill her _ . **

False drew her hand back and threw her other netherite blade. 

And she watched it bury itself in the chest of the brown-haired girl.

Everything was silent, as the girl raised her hand to her chest and felt the sticky blood that poured out of her.

She raised her head to stare at False, surprise, and hurt flashing across her young features.

And then she fell. 

False rushed to her side, not even hearing the screams of her teammates, as the clash of metal filled the air again; Pigicial continuing their battles.

But all she could focus on was the girl on the ground, dead by her hands - the girl who could have lived. She saw the life fade from the girl's eyes moments before she reached her, and she saw the girl's chest stop moving.

Horror filled her gut, and False leaned to the side and threw up her breakfast. 

_ She  _ had done that.  _ She  _ had killed an innocent human girl.

**_ Oh, come on, False, she was going to kill Tommy.  _ **

"I hit the arrow," False sobbed, feeling the tears rolling down her cheeks as she stared into the lifeless eyes of the brown-haired girl. "I could've stopped there. I...didn't."

**_ Yes, good job on that.  _ **

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" False screamed. "SHUT UP! PLEASE! LEAVE ME ALONE FOR ONE DAMN SECOND!" She was panting by the time she finished, and it was only then she realized the arena was dead silent.

No clash of blades, no cheering of the crowd. No speaking, no noise. Only the echo of her screams.

False saw the world blur, and she just barely heard the scream of Tommy's voice before everything went dark. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we gonna be doing double updates for like 3 days lmao


	49. Arc 2: Chapter 17

"...horrors of her past..."

"...terms with her decisions?"

"...lucky she isn't completely insane - "

False groaned as she opened her eyes, flinging an arm over her face to shield her pupils from the light that glared down on her.

"False?"

She cracked open an eye and shifted her arm so that she could see Tommy leaning over her. "What?" she snapped. 

"What do you mean,  _ what _ ?" Tommy demanded furiously, as False sat up on the cot she was on and rubbed her eyes. They were in Naria's office, the she-demon in question sitting behind her desk, poised and perfect as before - and writing yet another letting. "You fainted, False."

Dread trickled down her spine, and False felt tears slide down her face at the vision of the girl she'd killed. "I - I killed someone," she whispered.

**_ It is nothing you haven't done before. _ **

"Oh, shut up," False nearly screamed, causing Tommy to jump back.

"...are you okay?" someone else said, and False turned her cramped neck to glare at Pigicial.

"I'm fine, why do you ask?" she snapped.

"Because you're talking to nobody?" Tommy offered up after a second. Behind him, Deo stood, his arms crossed, nodding solemnly. "You're...different, False. Ever since the semi-finals."

"No, I'm not," she nearly shouted. "I'm the same damn person I've always been."

**_ Are you? You've been two people in your life. One was a ruthless murderer, the other a friend. You killed someone the other day -  _ **

"At  _ your  _ beck and call!" she snapped. 

Naria looked up, finally, towards Tommy. "If you're wondering, she's talking to a voice in her head."

"That does  _ not  _ sound sane," Pigicial muttered, leaning on his scythe and eyeing her worriedly. "You sure you're good?"

"I'm  _ fine _ ," she said through clenched teeth. 

A knock sounded on the door of Naria's office, and the she-demon raised her head. "Come in," she called.

Another demon walked in, his blood-red hair nearly matching his skin tone as he stared at the four of them in distaste. "These are the winners?" he said with a small sneer.

Deo lay a hand on Tommy's back when he reached for his sword. "Relax," False heard the blind man say in a low voice. "We'll be out of here soon."

"And that would be the memory mage," Naria said with a small sigh, her eyes glimmering with something that False couldn't read. She waved her hand, and a black kettle appeared, an edge of smoke coming out of the spout. "Care for some tea?"

"I will have to politely decline," the memory mage said. "I have some work I need to do after this, and I would like to get this stupidity out of the way as soon as possible." He snorted. "If I had my way, you humans wouldn't ever be leaving this place."

False could've sworn that Naria's eyes flashed before the she-demon was back to her serene coolness. She herself grit her teeth at the memory mage's words, and had to visibly restrain herself from leaping at him, even though her swords were leaning against the opposite wall, in two leather sheaths. 

"I insist," Naria said coolly. 

A touch of fear crossed the demon's face, and he bowed low. "Of course, Administrator." 

"Can I have some?" Tommy piped up.

"No," Naria said sharply. 

The memory mage smirked at Tommy and took the steaming cup of tea that Naria had poured. He downed it all in one gulp, placing the cup back onto Naria's desk, the she-demon waving her hands and having the kettle and cup disappear. False thought it was a bit odd the she-demon didn't take a cup for herself - but perhaps it was merely demonic formalities and politics she wasn't aware of.

"And now, for the fun part," the memory mage said, rubbing his hands gleefully.

He took one step and collapsed onto the ground. 

False, Deo, Tommy, and Pigicial stared at the now-snoring demon with open mouths.

Naria rose from her chair, wrinkling her nose. "He won't wake up for a while."

"What did you do?" Tommy asked in horror. 

Naria tilted her head at the golden-haired boy. "Treason of the highest order," she said, a tinge of smugness in her voice. "Let's just say that he won't be wiping anybody's memories today."

"Why?" False voiced. 

Naria contemplated her for a moment. "Because it is the right thing to do." She rubbed her forehead. "This...arena business has been going on for too long."

"You're the administrator!" Pigicial said. "Why didn't you stop this sooner?"

Naria regarded him icily. "We are in a democracy." False snorted. "I was voted into this position. I cannot fight demons who bear powerful offensive magic. Most of them are hard-headed assholes who only wish to see blood spilled. I did not have the right people to set free, to go back to the Overworld to tell their tale. Most of the winners were just as bad as our... _ friend _ ...here." Her mouth twisted with distaste. 

"Why us?" Tommy asked.

"Not you," Naria replied. She raised a finger and pointed at False. "Her."

False frowned, confused. 

"And because all of you, together, are some of the most heartful individuals I have ever come across," Naria continued. "You care for eachother...and the freedom of your fellow humans." She jerked her chin at False. "And you care far too much."

False startled from her seating area as everyone in the room, besides the demon sleeping on the floor, looked at her. "What are you talking about?"

Naria smiled kindly. "The first step in redemption is the acknowledgment of your wrongs," she said in a soft voice. "You have done that, many times over. The second step is forgiveness." She blinked once. "You have been forgiven many times over, False." She took a step further. "You need to let go. You need to stop blaming yourself for something that was out of your control."

False stood up in a wash of pain and horror. "But it  _ was  _ in my control!" she insisted. " _ I  _ held the knife.  _ I  _ chose to kill that innocent child."

"Not so much a child," Tommy muttered, and False realized he was assuming she blamed herself for the death she had caused in the arena. "That girl would've killed me. You saved my life. We wouldn't be here, in this room, without you. Perhaps none of us would - as you won the semi-finals."

_ It wasn't only that girl _ , False thought warily.  _ It was so many others. So many people who will never forgive me for taking their life away.  _ But she didn't say that out loud. "It's too late for redemption," she said coldly. 

And she believed it, too. 

If there was a chance - even a  _ small  _ chance - of redemption, it had disappeared long ago. 

Even if she spent the rest of her life saving people, it would never undo all the evil she'd inflicted. All the people she'd killed. All the blood she'd ever spilled.

Pigicial gaped at her. "It was one person, False. I've killed more people than that." He looked troubled by the thought, but he was trying to console her.

"You don't understand," she hissed, clenching her fists. "It is  _ so much more  _ than just one person."

"Then ENLIGHTEN US!" Tommy bellowed. "Stop keeping secrets, and expect us to know."

"NO!" False shouted back. "No - no, I can't."

"Why?" Deo asked her, the calmest of the group.

"BECAUSE YOU WILL HATE ME!" she screamed, tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes. "You will hate me...and you will walk away. They all will, one day."

She could see it. 

Cleo shaking her head, anger in her eyes, as she turned and walked away. Stress, pity on her face, but following Cleo,  _ pushing  _ False away - Techno; curling his lip at her and attacking her with his sword, forcing her away. All of them. 

The hermits.

The Northerners.

Tommy. Pigicial. Deo.

All of them would walk away once they knew the truth. Her childhood friends were probably just afraid of her, afraid she would kill them if they pushed her away. 

"It can't be that bad," Tommy said. 

Naria interrupted False. "I think you guys can continue this discussion...in the Overworld." She toed the memory mage at her feet. "Wouldn't want him to wake up and erase everything you've created down here, would you?"

False nearly said yes. She wanted her life to be gone - erased away, so she could forget everything she'd ever done. She wanted to walk away, and not look back. She didn't want to see the horrified looks that would soon be on Tommy, Pigicial, and Deo's faces the moment they learned the truth of who she was. 

**_ Embrace who you are, False. It is in your blood.  _ **

Naria walked over to one of the blanker walls, and waved her hands. The wall disappeared, and a portal flickered in its place; violet swirling lines surrounded by what False could now see was obsidian.

"This was here the whole time?" Deo said incredulously. 

Naria smiled grimly. "I'm afraid they don't trust me  _ that  _ much," she hummed. "It's only open one day a year." She winced apologetically. "And it only works for the winners. It's...magic that I do not understand. Rune magic." She leaned forward and pointed out a few inscribed words in a language that False didn't understand. 

T⍑ᒷ|| ∴╎ꖎꖎ ╎リᓭ⚍ꖎℸ ̣ ||𝙹⚍, ⍑⚍∷ℸ ̣ ||𝙹⚍, ↸ᒷ⎓ᒷᔑℸ ̣ ||𝙹⚍, ʖᒷℸ ̣ ∷ᔑ|| ||𝙹⚍, ╎リ⋮⚍∷ᒷ ||𝙹⚍, ᓭᒷℸ ̣ ||𝙹⚍ ᔑ⎓ꖎᔑᒲᒷ ᔑリ↸ ∴ᔑℸ ̣ ᓵ⍑ ||𝙹⚍ ʖ⚍∷リ. B⚍ℸ ̣ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ|| ∴╎ꖎꖎ リ𝙹ℸ ̣ ̣, ᓭ⍑ᔑꖎꖎ リ𝙹ℸ ̣ ̣, ᓵᔑリリ𝙹ℸ ̣ , ↸ᒷᓭℸ ̣ ∷𝙹|| ||𝙹⚍. Bᒷᓵᔑ⚍ᓭᒷ ||𝙹⚍, ꖎ╎ꖌᒷ ∷𝙹ᒲᒷ, ∴ᒷ∷ᒷ ʖ⚍╎ꖎℸ ̣ 𝙹リ ᔑᓭ⍑ᒷᓭ, ᔑリ↸ ||𝙹⚍, ꖎ╎ꖌᒷ ᔑ !¡⍑𝙹ᒷリ╎ ̇/, ꖌリ𝙹∴ ⍑𝙹∴ ℸ ̣ 𝙹 ∷╎ᓭᒷ ᔑリ↸ ∷ᒷᓭ⚍∷∷ᒷᓵℸ ̣ ̣.

"I can't read Galactic," Naria said regretfully. "But it says something about burning and defeat. The magic was placed into the runes - the words of the runes have nothing to do with the magic itself - and...the result is this."

"This is very fascinating," Pigicial drawled. "But can we please get out of here?"

Naria smiled regretfully and stepped aside. "Of course."

False stood up on semi-shaky legs, grabbing her swords and stepping purposely on the memory demon's hand. Tommy nodded to her before he stepped through the portal, Deo and Pigicial following shortly after. 

She paused, staring at the swirls - and then turned back to Naria. "Why are you doing this?"

Naria's face was full of sadness. "Because you deserve redemption, False Symmetry," she whispered. 

False stared at her wordlessly.

And then she stepped through the portal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember, this is a double upload night.   
> Make sure to press --->  
> I mean you don't have to  
> but it would be helpful for the story.


	50. Arc 2: Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOTE: This is the second chapter updated today, as of 6/14. If you have not seen the first one, PLEASE go read that first! It is very important to the story!
> 
> If you do not, don't blame me for getting confused.

"For a second there, I thought you weren't going to come through," Tommy told her, as he stared at the cloudy sky, his eyes wide as he tried to take in everything; the cold sun that peeked out in the nearly-winter air, the rush of water in a nearby stream, and the mountains that towered behind them. 

Jerry was flying higher and higher in the air, Deo lying on his back on the grass, his eyes closed, a content smile on his face. Pigicial was staring at a flower, his eyes wide.

Suddenly, False realized that they hadn't seen nature - true nature - for nearly four years, some of them. A sickening feeling filled her stomach of not seeing the sun, the  _ sky _ , for nearly four years. She had had at least that freedom in the South.

"We're North of the Remoa Mountains," Deo said suddenly. Jerry swooped back down, chirping excitedly. "We can see the castle from here, in the distance."

Pigicial scrambled up. "Well, let's go then!" he demanded, swinging his scythe over his back.

Tommy started to follow his friends, but stopped when False didn't move. "You coming?"

False smiled sadly as she swung her swords over her back, buckling the straps across her chest. "No."

Pigicial gaped at her. " _ What _ ? Why not? Aren't your friends there?"

She nodded. "There is something else I need to attend to. I promise I'll be there shortly - I'm not going to run away." She gave a short, harsh laugh.

But she saw anything about the looks Tommy gave her as he headed into the forest, that was  _ exactly  _ what he thought she was going to do.

False turned and placed her palm flat on the wall of the mountain. 

* * *

"Look," Cleo told Stress. "Your coronation is in a week, and I can't have mine until I find my mother and remove that crown off her head."

"A crown doesn't make one a queen, Cleo," Joe told her.

"I know," Cleo said in annoyance. "I just want to know she's not going to jump out of the shadows and stab one of my friends."

Iskall clucked his tongue. "If I were her, I'd be far away from here by now."

Cleo sighed, stabbing a fork angrily into her apple pie. Sure, it was nearly lunchtime, but she wanted something sugary. It wasn't like anybody was going to stop her.

Except for Stress, apparently. 

"You shouldn't be eating something so close to mealtimes," the brown-haired girl said worryingly. "You'll feel full."

"I - " Cleo started, when the door cracked open and a guard she didn't recognize peeked through.

The seven of them - Stress, Cleo, Joe, Iskall, Techno, and Etho - turned to look at him. 

"Your...highnesses," he said with a slight stutter. "And my lord." That part was directed at Techno. "There is someone here to see you."

Cleo jumped up, all thoughts of hunger aside. "Does that someone have blonde hair and blue eyes?" she demanded.

The guard regarded her. "Yes, your highness."

"Let them in," Stress said in a strangled whisper. 

"But they're carrying weapons - "

"I don't care!" Cleo nearly shouted. "Let them in!" 

The guard withdrew his head from the doorway, and Cleo looked at Stress with wide eyes. "Do you think...?" she mouthed to Stress, who nodded, her eyes bright. 

_ Rowan,  _ she called out to her phoenix.  _ Can you tell Luna that False is back? _

She felt the surprise originate from the phoenix, before he sent a small bit of acceptance down their bond. Luna had been moping for so long now - it would be better if she were with her rider.

The door creaked open again, and Cleo expected to see False pushing open the doors, a jaunty expression on her face - but no.

No, it was a blonde-haired boy with teal eyes, a gleaming sword across his back. Two others stood beside him, both guys, one wearing shades, a robin on his shoulder, and a golden sword strapped to his side, and the other with orange hair, a scythe hanging across his back.

She felt tears cloud her eyes in disappointment, a small sigh escaping her lips as she sat back down heavily and tore into her apple pie angrily.

But when she looked up again, Techno was staring at the boy in amazement, disbelief written all over his face. "Tommy?" he whispered.

Cleo pointed her fork at him in confusion. "You know him?" she asked. Stress had a look of understanding on her face - she must know something that Cleo didn't. Even Etho looked confused. 

"Hello, Technoblade," the blonde-haired boy - Tommy - said easily. "I'm...back."

"Yes, they can see that," the orange-haired boy said with a smirk. 

"Who are you?" Techno demanded.

"Pigicial," he responded, and then he jerked a hand at the boy with the sunglasses. "This is Deo."

"Techno," Cleo said. "I think we're missing a few..." she glanced at Joe. "Puzzle pieces."

"Tommy was my student," Techno said distractedly. "Before I knew any of you. Around three years ago."

"I told you he'd remember me!" Tommy said to Pigicial, who rolled his eyes.

"I've never met you before," Cleo said. "Have you been...hiding out?"

Tommy's eye twitched. "Different dimensions, actually." He looked her up and down. "You be Cleo. Or...Clementine whatever-your-last-name-is."

Cleo stared at him in shock. "How do you know my name?"

Tommy tapped the side of his head. "I can read minds."

"Tommy," Techno said in exasperation. 

_ FALSE! _

Cleo winced at the explosion of noise that filled her head, and by the looks of pain on everyone else's faces, they'd all heard Luna as well.

The doors to the dining hall were thrown open to reveal the navy-blue and white phoenix, who scanned the hall looking for her beloved rider.

"Sorry," Stress told the phoenix, a sad look on her face. "False alarm."

Luna narrowed her eyes down on Cleo, who tried to look anywhere but the phoenix, and made to flap back down the hallway.

Tommy stopped her. "Luna?" 

The phoenix turned, a disgruntled expression on her face.  _ How do you know my name? _

Tommy tapped the side of his head. "As I said - I'm a mind reader."

"Tommy," Techno groaned again. "You're not a mage."

"Actually," Deo cut in. "He is." He glared at Tommy. "Just not a mind-reading mage. He's a water mage."

"Well," Cleo said. "Then how do you know my name, and Luna's name?"

"False," Tommy said primly.

Iskall slammed the glass of water he'd been drinking so hard down on the table it shattered. " _ WHAT?" _

"Yeah, she told us stories of you guys," Pigicial piped up. "Are you really the Ice Queen?" This part was directed at Stress.

"I - yes," Stress said, staring at Tommy. "Yes, I am. When did False tell you this?"

"Like two days ago," Tommy said. "Are they even real? Is the Black Knight really dead? Did Sinner really kill him? Are you guys really reincarnations?"

"Yes, yes, and yes," Cleo answered. "That's not important, though. What  _ is  _ important - is when you last saw her, and where. And  _ how  _ you knew her." There was a dangerous tone in her voice.

Tommy looked at Pigicial, who shrugged. "Well," he said. "It all started when we fell through a portal. Well - we did. Separately. There's this place called the Nether, filled with demons, and they gave us the choice of working in the quartz mines for ten years, or fighting in an arena for a chance to be free." 

"Let me guess," Techno said dryly. "You took the first option." 

"Yes, of course," Tommy shot back. " _ Anyway _ , as I was saying, I took the second option, and I was assigned Pigicial and Deo as teammates. We lost every year for three years straight." He looked at the ground sheepishly. "But then False came around - "

"And she destroyed everyone?" Stress interrupted. 

Tommy blinked. "Uh - not exactly. She introduced herself as False, a girl who lived in a village and had been watching the battle from the sidelines, when she'd fallen through a portal."

Techno snorted. 

Cleo and Stress looked at each other. "I'd say I'm surprised," Cleo said slowly. "But I'm really not." 

"So she faked being horrible at swordsmanship," Pigicial piped up. "And I had to teach her. No wonder she didn't improve. She was already better than me; just hiding it."

"Make sure your opponent underestimates you. That will be their downfall. There is a time for arrogance, and there is a time to minimize your skills, so that the others don't know what you can and can't do. If you give it everything you've got first try, they'll know your limits, if they are smart enough to look," Techno muttered under his breath. "Of course. I taught her that."

Tommy looked slightly scandalized. "I mean, I can't say it didn't work. We were jumped in our rooms and pulled to the arena, and then False stalks in, all high and mighty, and we think she's crazy, except she somehow controls water - we didn't know she was a water mage - and I...wave them over."

"That's not a verb," Joe said.

Tommy glared at him. "That's not the point. She told me that I had little control and I'd end up killing one of my teammates. So she offers to teach me - and everything is going great, and we're winning, until the  _ semi-finals _ . False gets chosen, as it's a single-event only, and we tell her not to die - and then she kind of has a mental breakdown or something, starts screaming at nothing, swords appear in her hands, and she single-handedly slaughters every demon that comes at her."

Cleo's jaw drops. " _ What _ ?"

"Exactly what I said," Tommy said. "Oh wait, I forgot about the phoenix that burst into feathers and dust - that's not important though."

"I'd  _ say  _ that's pretty important," Techno said angrily.

Tommy ignored him. "So after that, she tells us something about unlawful marriage to some guy named Kian she drained the life out of - "

"She told us that before," Deo supplied helpfully. 

"Oh yeah," Tommy nodded. "Yeah - that time she told us about being locked up in a castle for nine years, because she wanted to save her friends, and then not returning to her village because she was ashamed or something. Then she told us she was a phoenix rider - " he pointed at Luna. " - and about you, and other stuff like that. Then we won the finals, some demon woman let us through the portal without wiping our memories like they usually did, False told us she'd be along shortly, and then tarts starting at a mountain wall." He crossed his arms. "Any questions?"

"Yeah..." Stress said slowly. "Can we have the long version?"

* * *

There was complete silence in the room after the trio had finished the hour-long version of their story. 

Tommy bit into an apple. "You know," he proclaimed loudly. "I miss hand-picked apples."

Techno's knuckles were gripping the table so hard Cleo was sure it would break. "You're telling me," he said dangerously. "That there are potentially hundreds of people, mages especially, in the Nether, who are being pitted against one another? And some of them die?"

"Uh, yes," Tommy said slowly. "We need to go rescue them."

" _ After  _ the war ends," Cleo put in.

Deo frowned at her. "I thought you guys said you won the war?"

"Yeah, well, my mother hasn't been found yet," Cleo sighed. "And I'm just afraid she's going to attack from the shadows."

"I doubt it," Pigicial said offhandedly. "She's not that stupid." He hesitated. "I don't think she's that stupid."

"My mother is many things," Cleo muttered. "A bitch, an asshole, a controlling,  _ horrible  _ ruler - stupid is not one of them."

"I, for one," Tommy pit in, his teal eyes gleaming. "Would like to meet Sinner Symmetry. False mentioned she was good, and killed the Black Knight. Is that true?"

Cleo cringed, and she heard Techno choke. 

"Yeah, that's true," she heard Stress manage to force out. "She's good." 

"So...can I meet her?" Tommy asked expectantly.

Cleo looked at Stress, who nodded her head. The other four people, besides the trio, were dead silent. "Actually," Cleo said after a moment. "You've already met her."

"Huh?"

"Tommy," Cleo said, not liking the taste of the words in her mouth. False  _ is  _ Sinner Symmetry."

Tommy dropped his half-eaten apple onto the floor. Pigicial's eyes widened. Deo's mouth dropped open.

"Bullshit," they said together.

"No," Techno intervened. "She is."

Tommy grimaced. "So she was lying to us?" he asked, looking betrayed. "Again?"

"No, Tommy," Stress said softly. "Every word of her story - at least the third time she said it, and most of the second - was true."

Tommy floundered for words. "But - False said she was forced to kill people, or others would die - she said that she was forced to marry Kian -  _ False killed the Black Knight? _ "

"Oh, and another thing," Etho said breezily. "Kian  _ is  _ the Black Knight."

Cleo grimaced at the looks that crossed the trio's faces. "I don't know why she hid it from you," she said - and then winced. "Actually, I do. She was afraid you'd hate her."

"We would never  _ hate  _ her," Pigicial said angrily. "Not trust her, probably. Be mad at her for lying - again - most definitely. But hate her? Attack her? Never. She saved our lives multiple times, and she's the only reason we got out of here."

Cleo nodded slowly. "And  _ I  _ know that, Pigicial. But False has her own issues when it comes to dealing with her past problems. She blames herself for everything, even when she saved so many people - she saved us - " She pointed at Stress and Joe. " - us, and her other friends too, by staying there."

"I would have made the exact same choices as her," Techno conceded. "It would have hurt, and it would have broken me apart, but I would have made them. It was the right thing to do."

"How old was she?" Deo asked bleakly. "When she was forced to kill someone?"

Stress threw Cleo a look. "Twelve, I believe. And then she was married to the Black Knight - to Kian - at fifteen, nearly sixteen, and ran away at seventeen to Hermitville, but she stayed on the outskirts."

"And...what about the people she talks to?" Tommy asked quietly. 

"Mental stress?" Techno asked. "Maybe she's seeing ghosts. I wouldn't know. Why didn't you do anything to help her?"

Tommy threw up his hands. "What was I supposed to do - ask for a therapist? We were in basic  _ hell _ , Technoblade. There was nobody to help us. Plus, she was hiding so much from us, I wasn't sure if she had some animal companion that she screamed at."

_ I resent that,  _ Luna said suddenly. She'd been quiet the entire time, yet now the sparkle of rebellion had been rekindled in her eyes.  _ Do you know where she is? _

Tommy shrugged. "Last I saw, she was touching a stone wall." 

"And you didn't think to stop her?" Iskall asked.

"Oh, why don't  _ you  _ try stopping the crazy woman from doing what she wants?" Tommy said, sounding offended. "It's not like I could do anything about it. She'd probably murder me."

"She wouldn't kill you," Cleo said. "But you're right. You probably  _ couldn't  _ stop that stubborn idiot."

"Ah, I know where she is," Stress said suddenly. "It's where...where I learned of our past selves. It's our old home, in the mountains."

Cleo stood up. "Well, then," she said. "Let's go rescue her."

Techno sighed. "I doubt she requires rescuing, Cleo," he said. 

"I meant from  _ herself _ ."


	51. Arc 2: Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another double update (and the last one)  
> (1/2 | 6/15)

_ Would you hurry up and open the door?  _ Luna asked.

Stress sighed. "I'm not sure you'll like what you find beyond it," she warned the phoenix."

Techno scowled. "You're the only one with experience. Open the damn door before I cut off your hand and do it myself."

Stress glanced at him scathingly but put her palm flat on the stone and watched it evaporate into dust. "Fine."

Techno gaped for a minute before she saw him shake his head and follow Luna into the passageway, Cleo trailing after him. Stress took a final deep breath of fresh air, before she forged into the hallway she'd been in only twice before, once going in, and once coming out. Glacier followed her slowly, his head turning every which way cautiously.

_ It smells like phoenix in here,  _ Rowan prodded.  _ Multiple.  _ She saw him tilt his head.  _ Familiar. _

_ Why, Rowan, that would be because this was  _ our  _ home, once,  _ Luna said.  _ We were here. Of course, it's familiar. It's your own nasty scent.  _

Ash chirped loudly.  _ I preferred you in your moping state, Luna. _

_ No, you didn't,  _ Luna shot back.  _ You said you preferred my snarky state much better. _

Ash snorted loudly, but didn't respond.

Luna let out a chirp of surprise; she'd been the first one in the room, and she skidded to a halt. 

"False!" Stress said gleefully, making to run towards their friend. As Cleo stepped up into the entrance, she saw Techno grab Stress's hand and pull her back.

For it was False that stood, her back to them. Her blonde hair, the dirty shirt under the nearly-identical armor to Tommy and Pigicial that she wore. 

But it wasn't False when the girl spun, a wicked grin across her face. It wasn't her  _ expressions _ \- and her blue eyes shone black. Two new swords were held in her hands, and Cleo nearly took a step back from the danger that seemed to permeate across the room.

"False?" Stress whispered, horrified. 

False's eyes shot to Stress. "Hello, Stress."

Cleo gaped at the anger in her friend's voice. "What happened to you?" 

"What do you mean, what happened to me?" False asked, raising an eyebrow. "I am more me than I have ever been."

"No, you're not," Stress choked out. "You - you're not False. Not the one that I know. That  _ we  _ know."

False's lips twisted into a scowl. "You don't like my changes, Stress?" She turned to Techno. "You are, after all, the one that told me to embrace my past."

"Yeah, and  _ move on _ ," Techno said angrily. "Not become the same person that murdered children."

Cleo winced. That was the wrong thing to say. She placed an arm on Techno's shoulder, indicating he should probably stop speaking. "Nobody blames you for that girl you killed to save Tommy," she said.

"I don't regret it," False said with a shrug. "She deserved it."

Cleo barely heard Techno draw his sword. "What are you doing?" she hissed at the pink-haired man. 

"False," Stress said quietly, tears flowing out of her chocolate brown eyes. "What happened to you down there?"

False laughed blandly, and even Luna cringed at the so-unlike-False laugh. "I learned from my past...and I embraced it. The voices are part of me now. I don't have to run from them."

"What voices?" Cleo said, barely audible through her horrified tone. 

False's eyes snapped to her, and she grinned, showing all her teeth. "Why, Sinner, of course."

_ I can't reach her!  _ Luna screamed in Cleo's head.  _ She won't respond to me! I can't talk to her!  _ The phoenix sounded desperate.

"GET BACK!" she heard Techno roar.

Luna let out a loud screech.

Cleo barely saw False move, saw Techno meet her two blades swing for swing, but it wasn't like their sparring - in that, they'd only tried to scratch each other. 

No, False was trying to  _ kill  _ Techno.

Stress drew her own sword, and Cleo did as well, but they could do nothing but watch in horror as the two fought brutally. 

"Don't kill her!" she heard Stress shriek, over the clash of swords and the screeches of the phoenixes. 

"That's kinda hard  _ not  _ to do!" Techno bellowed back, desperately parrying one of False's blows. "Seeing as she's trying to  _ kill  _ me!"

Cleo and Stress had no response to that. 

Luna screeched and pounced into the room, her claw coming under False's legs and tripping her up, one of her swords skidding across the floor to land at Cleo's feet, the dark metal of the blades cold and silent. 

In a mere second, Techno had his blade pointed at False's throat, the tip nicking her jugular.

False bared her teeth at him. "You wouldn't kill me."

"No," Techno sighed. "But I would hurt you."

Cleo saw False's eyes widen, moments before the pommel of Techno's blade hit the side of her head, and the blonde-haired girl hit the floor with a resounding crack. 

Stress let out a small shriek, before she and Cleo ran over to Techno, who was panting, sweat rolling down his neck and forehead. "Did you kill her?"

Techno snorted, picking up False's other, identical, blade. "No. But I guarantee she'll be out for a bit."

Cleo threw him a look, and then sighed. "What...what's wrong with her?"

"The exact opposite of what I wanted to happen," Techno grumbled.

Stress shot to her feet. "You  _ knew  _ this was going to happen?" she said angrily.

Techno threw a small glare at her. "Of course not. I had an idea she might fall, if she ever were alone - especially since she accidentally took the life of a young girl, who, like her, was merely fighting to be free. I had an  _ idea  _ that she might succumb to the whims of Sinner, though I had no idea that Sinner was a sentient voice inside of False's head. I thought that after the war...we could rest, and laugh together. But False fell through that portal, and while Tommy and Deo and Pigicial are all nice kids...they weren't her friends when she met them. Not yet. False has many struggles she has to put behind her before she can finally be free of the weights she puts on her own mind, and it made it easier when those around her understood. Tommy and his friends...they didn't. And it's not their fault, either - but False was basically alone, down there. Who could she confide in about her past? She was afraid they would hate her. She did the same thing to me, as well - " This was directed at Stress. " - and to you - " He pointed at Cleo. " - she tried to force herself into not being False. There cannot be one without the other, not yet. She is trying to ignore the person she was - but instead, she slipped  _ into  _ that person." 

Cleo gaped. "How do you know so much?"

Techno shrugged. "I watch. I listen. I read books on philosophy." 

* * *

"What happened to her?" Iskall nearly shouted, when Techno plopped False's body on a medical cot in the infirmary. 

"She got into a fight," Techno answered.

"Yeah," Cleo said. "With  _ you _ ."

Iskall gaped at Techno, who was calling for a healer. "You knocked her out?"

"Hey," Techno said, raising his hands in resignation. "In all fairness, she attacked  _ me  _ first."

The doors banged open, and Cleo looked over her shoulder to see Tommy, Deo, Pigicial...and just about the rest of the entire castle at their heels, including Skeppy and BBH. A babble of questions immediately followed.

"What happened?"

"She's not dead, right?"

"What the hell is going on here?"

"EVERYONE SHUT UP!" Techno roared, quieting the entire room. "False...is injured." He hesitated. "Mentally. Does anybody have a pair of handcuffs?"

Wels's hand shot up. "I do."

Techno held his hand out, and Wels handed it to him wordlessly.

"What are you doing?" Cleo demanded, when Techno fastened one cuff to False's left wrist, and the other to a bar on the side of the bed.

Techno looked up at her. "Making sure she doesn't kill anybody."

There was silence, and then the room broke out into chaos once more.

" - wouldn't kill anybody!"

"What do you mean, injured mentally?"

And it was then that False opened her eyes and screamed.


	52. Arc 2: Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEY! If you haven't seen the previous chapter (also posted today, as of 6/15, PLEASE DO SO! IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO THE STORY!  
> (2/2 | 6/15)

There was no color, just blackness. The absence of light, of light itself.

She could hear someone screaming, and the voice sounded familiar, but she couldn't _quite_ place it, couldn't _quite_ identify the person it was coming from. It was faint, as was the noises that accompanied it, but False couldn't make out anything but the endless keen of pain.

Where was she?

And why was someone screaming at that level of pain?

"Hello?" she called out.

"Hello, False."

False whirled around to find...herself. An exact mirror image stared back at her, except this girl wore black armor, and her eyes shone dark and deadly. False reached for her swords, but none were there. "Who are you?"

The girl tilted her head at False. "I'll give you three guesses, and the first two don't count."

"...Sinner?" False whispered. 

Sinner inclined her head in False's direction. "Yes, that seems to be our name."

False rubbed her forehead. "No. _My_ name is False." She blinked. "The last thing I remember is...is putting my hand on the rock..." her voice trailed off. "Where am I? What happened? Who is screaming?"

" _You_ are screaming, False," Sinner said.

"Wha - no I'm not," False spluttered. 

But when Sinner stayed silent, and False tilted her head and listened, she realized it was her own endless shriek that rang dimly in the depths of the void. "Where are we?" she asked again.

"Your mind," Sinner answered. 

"Why am I screaming?"

"Because you are in pain."

False looked down at her body, her eyebrows furrowing. "I seem fine to me."

Sinner let out a loud snort, and tapped the side of her head. "Not physically. Mentally." 

False gaped at her. "You're telling me I'm mentally insane?"

Sinner's eye twitched. "No. Not yet."

"Why would I be insane?"

Sinner smirked. "Why, because of me." 

* * *

False's eyes flew open, and Stress saw the black that flickered within as everyone stared at her.

"I killed them..." her friend whispered in a horrified tone. "I...I killed all of them."

Stress gave Cleo a look.

False let out a loud shriek that made everybody in the infirmary take a step back. "I KILLED THEM! THEY'RE DEAD BECAUSE OF ME!" Horrible, heart-wrenching sobs came from the blonde-haired girl, tears pouring down her face. "...because of me, they will never breathe again."

Stress reached down and grabbed False's arm. "Hey. You saved me. You saved me and so many others because of what you did. Nobody blames you."

"They all blame me," False muttered. "It's all my fault. If I had just..."

"Just what?" Techno burst out. "Not done what you did? Your friends would be dead. Those people in the castle would be dead by the hundreds." He gestured at the silent room. "So many people would be dead."

"So many people _are already dead because of me_ ," False seethed. "And I...I swore I wouldn't do it again...but...but I _did..."_

Stress felt a piece of her heart break off at her friend's words. 

False looked up at her. "It's lonely."

"No," Stress said adamantly. "No, it's not lonely. I'm here now."

"Not here," False said, glancing around the room. "In here." She tapped her head with her right hand. "Except when Sinner's there. Then it's not so lonely."

She saw Cleo and Techno exchange a look.

"But she left me," False whispered. "She left me when I needed her the most." She peered up at Stress. "Are you going to leave me?"

"No," Stress whispered fiercely. "Never."

* * *

"Get out of my head," False seethed at Sinner.

The girl shrugged. "You created me."

"Yeah," False hissed. "When I needed you. I don't _need_ you anymore. You're just a bother."

Suddenly, she couldn't breathe, and Sinner's hands were around her throat, choking her, and she couldn't _breathe -_

* * *

"Liar," False hissed, and Cleo nearly jumped on Stress to pull away from her friend-that-wasn't-mentally-stable. "You did leave me."

Stress stared at False, horrified. "You were taken from me," she said softly. "First by the Dragon Guards, and then by the portal. I would've come with you, but you disappeared."

"LIAR!" False howled, slapping Stress's hand away. "YOU WEREN'T THERE WHEN I NEEDED YOU! NONE OF YOU WERE!" Her head snapped around the room, glaring at all of them. "I...I was so alone, and none of you came to rescue me."

"Nobody knew you were alive," Cleo snapped out. "And besides, when you came out of the castle, you didn't come home. The feeling is mutual." 

"You had your friends," False hissed at her, her black eyes scaring the shit out of Cleo. "I had nobody to protect me. Nobody but myself..." She hugged her body. "Myself and Sinner. She was my savior." 

Cleo didn't particularly like the sound of that.

"I HATE YOU!" False screamed, anger and resentment visible on her features, her fists clenched. "I HATE ALL OF YOU!"

Cleo put her hands over her ears as False's words ended in an ear-ringing scream.

* * *

She.

Could.

Not.

Breathe.

"See?" Sinner crooned. "You do need me now. You need me to let go."

"No," False gasped out. "You are both the cause and the solution to my problems. Without you...I would have none at all."

"I saved your life," Sinner snarled. "When you were too weak to stand against Kian, _I_ was there. When you couldn't kill those girls, I could. When you - "

"Shut up!" False howled. "Shut the HELL UP! STOP RUINING MY LIFE!" 

She couldn't breathe.

* * *

Stress heard False's scream cut off abruptly, and she released her hands from her ears and let out a loud sigh of relief, others around her doing the same. But the longer she stared at False, the more things seemed to...stop.

_She's not breathing..._

"She's not breathing!" Cleo shrieked.

"We need a healer!" Techno bellowed.

Stress could only stare in horror.

* * *

False fell to her knees, feeling light-headed, as Sinner let her go. "What - what's happening?" she gasped out, her hand over her chest. Her heart...was slowing. Fading.

"We're dying, I suppose," Sinner said nonchalantly. 

The beats beneath her hand shuddered for half a second, and False's vision flashed black. 

_I'm dying._


	53. Arc 2: Chapter 21

** "ENOUGH." **

The word sliced right through Cleo's head like a knife, and she fell to the ground, wincing. The people around her fell as well, some of them falling into outright unconsciousness, others merely slumping as she did. Techno was the only one able to stay on his feet, and he turned and stared at the source of the noise.

A woman with purple eyes, night-black hair, and a furious look on her face had just appeared in the room.

"Miracle..." she heard Stress whisper.

So. This was the Goddess of Life? 

False shot up from her bed, gasping, her eyes still as rotten and as black as before. "You," she said to Miracle, her eyes flickering blue for the briefest second.

** "False,"  ** the Goddess said.  ** "You need to let go." **

False looked slightly affronted; her eyes flickering a bit more. "Let go of what?"

"Of everything," Miracle said, her echoing voice fading to that of a normal person. "Of all your failures."

"I - I can't do that," False whispered. "Doing that would be giving up on the memories of the people I killed. They don't deserve to be forgotten." She winced. "They deserve to be remembered by someone better than me."

"Nobody is better than you," the Goddess said. "You hold the weight of the world on your shoulders, False, and you expect to hold it alone." She gestured around at the people in the room. "These are your friends, False. Give them a bit of it."

"But that's not fair to them," False whispered, and Cleo nearly slapped her. "They don't deserve that burden."

"Neither do you."

"I killed countless people!" False hissed through her teeth. "I will never be forgiven for that."

Miracle cocked a brow. "Let's see, shall we?"

She waved a hand, and spectral figures filled the room, blue and white ghostly shapes of people. Cleo saw young children, boys, and girls, people her age, elderly people, soldiers of the North...even a woman that looked far too much like A6D for her liking. 

False stared at them, her jaw slack. Her eyes flickered blue again, and they stayed that way for nearly ten seconds before she shook her head and they returned to their darkness.

A girl stepped forward, maybe fifteen or sixteen, her eyes solemn and sad. She had darker hair, a braid over her shoulder. "False," she whispered. 

"I'm sorry," False let out a sob. "I'm sorry I killed you."

The spectral woman put a hand on False's arm. "Thank you," she said honestly. "Thank you for saving my younger brother and sister. I don't think I would've had the courage that you had." False stared up at her in awe. "Thank you for saving my family."

The girl smiled and disappeared. 

The woman that looked like A6D stepped forward, and the boy in question let out a choking sound when he spotted her. So. That  _ was _ his mother. And False had killed her.

"Thank you for saving my son, False," the woman whispered, pointing out A6D in the crowd. "Without you, we all would have died."

False opened her mouth, but no words escaped her. 

And one by one, all of the ghosts did the same. Cleo stared at them in awe, as they explained why she'd killed them. Even some of the soldiers from the North stepped forward and forgave her, telling her how they'd known she hadn't wanted to. 

Until there was only one left, another young girl with a bow slung over her back, one that made Tommy nearly stumble while trying to stand on his feet again.

"False," the girl said, raising her chin high. "You killed me in the arena."

Cleo's eyes widened. So  _ this  _ had been the girl that False had killed to save Tommy.

"I'm sorry," False whispered miserably.

The girl stared at her for a second, and Cleo held her breath, thinking that perhaps this girl would not forgive her. After a second, the girl gave a small smile and sighed, shaking her head. "You saved your teammates by killing me," she said. "I was an unknown person, and I was threatening your family. I misjudged you when I said you couldn't do it. You have the biggest heart of us all - because you can do what is necessary to protect those around you, and you still carry us as a burden." She lay a hand on False's shoulder. "Let us go, False. We made our choices. I should not have done that to Tommy, I admit. But I was trying to save my teammates as well, from losing. We had to play dirty...and it ended up with me dead." She sighed again. "Promise me one thing, False. The Nether is a place I do not wish upon anybody. Go and rescue them. Let them live to fight for their own beliefs another day; not for their freedom."

"I - I promise," False choked out.

The girl smiled. "Then you have earned your redemption." She placed a hand over her heart. "From me. From all of us. You have saved far more people than you have ever killed, yet you stay solely on the bad side, turning your head away from all the good you have ever done." She raised her hand in a salute. "Give your enemies hell for me." 

False returned the salute, and the entire room watched as the girl disappeared.

** "So you see, now?"  ** Miracle said, her echoing voice back.  ** "They do not hate you for the choices you made." **

"Thank you," False whispered. Her eyes flickered blue. Stayed blue.

* * *

"WHAT IS THIS?" Sinner shrieked. 

False stared with a wide smile as the screen in front of her, showing what was happening in the room, faded. "They really do forgive me," she said in wonder.

"No," Sinner seethed. "They hate you. You killed - "

"Saved far more people than I killed," False corrected absently. She turned to Sinner. "Thank you."

"For what?" her alter said, glaring stubbornly at her. 

"Enlightening me."

And with that, False closed her eyes and felt herself slip out of that dark place where Sinner lived, and back into her body. 

And when she opened her eyes, they remained resolutely blue.

And she held no hatred for herself - for what she'd done. Sure, there would be regret for lives lost...but there was no remaining hatred. 

False let out a breath and smiled up at her friends for the first time in nearly a month and a half. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this one's kinda short! But it needed to be said!


	54. Arc 2: Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2 more chapters until the end of the arc! :D

"You're doing it again," False accused, stabbing a strawberry with her fork and spearing into her mouth. Tommy, Pigicial, and Deo were looking at her - _again_. "We're out of the Nether; you can stop making me feel uncomfortable by staring at me when I'm trying to eat." 

"No," Deo said shortly.

"You deserve to be uncomfortable," Tommy added.

Pigicial just continued to stare at her.

False glared at Cleo when her friend muffled a laugh. She threw down her fork, not feeling hungry. "Fine. What do you want?"

"You're Sinner Symmetry," Pigicial said. It wasn't an accusation...more of pointing something out. 

False sighed. "Oh. Yeah. _That_." She reached into her pocket and tugged out the other half of the Uno card, handing it to Tommy.

"You know," Deo said after a moment. "We wouldn't have hated you if you had revealed that to us." False gave him a frank look. "Okay, fine, we wouldn't have hated you _that much_. But honestly, you're a..." He floundered for the right words.

"Hero?" Stress joked from False's other side. False elbowed her under the table, for poking fun at Deo. 

"Wha - yes, but - that's not what I - wait - " Deo struggled for words, his face going bright red when he realized Stress was joking. He cleared his throat in an attempt to gather himself. "Well. Now I know that. But you were more...infamous."

"Hmm," False said. She didn't disagree. She popped a strawberry into her mouth. 

"When are you going to stop lying?" Pigicial sighed.

"Never," Cleo said, and False threw her an odd look. "To herself more than others." She jabbed a finger in False's direction. "Don't give me that look, you know it's true. First, you told us that you weren't False, then you failed to mention to both Techno and your team here that you weren't Sinner." 

"Didn't trust them," False muttered.

"Didn't trust them, or didn't trust yourself?" Cleo said sharply.

False didn't answer. 

"So... _you_ killed the Black Knight?" Deo asked her, leaning forward. Jerry chirped from _her_ position on his shoulder. 

"Yeah. I killed Kian."

Cleo snapped her fingers. "Right. I was going to ask how you did that."

"I drained the life from him," False replied matter-of-factly. 

Stress raised her eyebrows at her. Iskall dropped his fork. Etho gave her a wide-eyed stare. 

Cleo didn't look too surprised. "At least you're single now." She winked at False, and said in a whisper-that-wasn't-really-a-whisper, "I bet you have _all_ the traits a person could ask for in a relationship."

False's jaw dropped at Cleo's audacity. Her ginger-haired friend burst out into peals of laughter. False sniffed. "You look like a squirrel."

"Not this again," Stress groaned half-heartedly. 

_FALSE!_

False winced at the shriek that sounded in her head. _What do you want, Luna?_ she asked, putting as much annoyance into her tone as she could. She could see the phoenix staring at her from the courtyard. _Why are you wearing a saddle?_

_It makes me feel more comfortable,_ Luna said in her mind, her tone sounding ashamed. _It...reminded me of you._

False stood up suddenly, making Stress next to her jump. "Sorry," she said to nobody in particular. "I have an appointment with somebody." Tommy stood up as well, but walked out the door instead - he must have to use the bathroom, or something, False decided. 

Cleo chuckled and punched her in the side. "Luna was pouting while you were gone. Please, relieve us of her presence." Her eyes twinkled, to show she was joking. 

_I was not_. False hid a smile when she heard the tiny drop of the lie that Luna just told.

"Right," multiple people - including Iskall, Cleo, and Stress - said at once. 

False heard Luna grumble in the back of her head, but the moon phoenix didn't outright disagree. False stepped onto the grass of the clearing, breathing in the cool winter air, and walked over to Luna, noticing that the saddle had no straps now - there was no need for them.

_I got them removed,_ Luna said softly. _By Skeppy and BBH._

False smiled as she climbed up onto the soft leather, marveling on how easy it was, now, that she had the use of her legs again. Grabbing the front of the saddle to stay on - it had a small handle - was far easier than ripping any of Luna's feathers out. "Thanks, Luna," she said softly, stroking the navy blue feathers on the phoenix's neck. 

She felt the sense of agreement in the back of her head, and turned her neck to look up at the castle - to see Technoblade, standing at his balcony, talking softly to Tommy. She turned away the moment they embraced - it felt a little personal to be staring. 

Luna shot up into the sky, and False let out a loud whoop as she squeezed her thighs and leaned forward to stay on, glad her hair was in a shoddy braid so it didn't fly across her face. 

When they were up above the clouds, they leveled off, and False saw the sun shining in the mid-morning. "You missed me, didn't you?" she said slowly.

Luna sniffed. _I did no such thing. It's far easier to fly without you._

"Liar," False laughed.

_Laugh at me all you want,_ Luna snarled in her head. _I am the one in control here._

But all False did was laugh - even when Luna tried her best to shake her off, and nearly succeeded, once, in one of her dive-twirls. All she could do was laugh.

Because she was home - she was with her friends, and her enemies were dead, save Cleo's mother - but that woman was probably long gone, and they had so many phoenix eggs they could use to train a new generation, and Rust...Rust had mentioned something about Menoa, a place with other phoenix riders. Even if he'd been there fifty years prior, there had to be _some_ left. She'd go on that adventure when it came to it.

For now, she would watch her two best friends become queens. 

_Thinking again?_ she heard Luna grumble.

_You should try it sometime,_ False shot back. _It really disperses the stupidity._

_Ah, well, continue then,_ Luna said. _You'll be doing it for a while before you get anywhere._

"I want to try something," False said out loud. Luna's curiosity probed her mind. "It seems...fun." 

And then she pushed herself off of Luna's saddle. 

The loud screech of the moon phoenix was the last thing she heard as she fell through the clouds, mist hitting her face. She made sure to keep her mouth closed, and her arms and legs outstretched so she fell slower than if she kept them pressed tightly to her body. Her eyes watered - but then the clouds vanished, and she could see the castle, far below, and the little tree that Stress usually sat under reading. It was beautiful.

Even as the wind rushed around her face, even as she fell faster and faster...False felt a bit at peace, here. The castle tops grew closer, and she saw Ash raise his head from his position on Techno's balcony to look up at her.

_WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?_ His roar pounded through her mind, but False only sent him a small image of herself doing a salute. He raised his wings to fly; to catch her, but he was too slow, and he knew it too, and she saw Techno and Tommy whirl as she swiftly fell towards certain death.

Luna's chirp came out of nowhere, and the breath escaped from False as she changed directions at a ninety-degree angle, Luna's clawed food wrapping around her torso.

The phoenix slowed her descent, and dropped False mere feet from the ground, before landing herself, looking a bit disgruntled, as False attempted to fix her hair. 

"Well. That was fun," she offered up.

"ARE YOU CRAZY?" she heard Techno bellow. 

Ash landed in a cloud of anger and incredulity, and False nearly fell from the tremble and the closeness of his landing. _You stupid child_ , she heard him say in disbelief. _What if Luna hadn't caught you?_

"I had faith in her," False said absentmindedly. 

_Yeah, Ash,_ Luna said. _Have faith in me._

_Did you even know she was going to do that?_ Ash grumbled to the moon phoenix.

_Well, no._

"I thought it was good practice," False said for the benefit of Tommy, as he too slid off Ash, having hitched a ride. The boy looked a bit sick to his stomach, and she could see his face go a little green before he managed to collect himself. 

"Good practice for _what_?" Techno said, as Stress and Cleo and most of the people from the dining hall came running out the door to see what the ruckus was. 

"You know," False said, deftly undoing her hair and rebraiding it. "Just in case I get knocked off, or something."

"That would _never_ happen," Techno said.

Cleo coughed. "Pardon me, for intruding on what I'm sure is a wonderful conversation...but it has happened." She winced. "The first time, it was a cliff..." Cleo trailed off as Stress patted her shoulder. "And the second...it was to grab Kian."

"That was on purpose, actually," False said absentmindedly.

"And you ended up disappearing _both_ times," Iskall said angrily. 

False grimaced. She couldn't argue with that. "Practice makes perfect?" she offered up. 

"No," Techno said. "That's like practicing...I don't know, DYING. You don't practice those things, False. You practice the _prevention_ of those things - like _not falling off Luna_."

_Hey_ , Luna said, sounding a bit hurt. _In all fairness, I didn't know she could do that._

Techno pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fate really hates me, doesn't it?" he muttered. "Who is laughing at me right now, at the fact that you two _daredevils_ are bonded?"

"I would say the only Goddess we know," Stress said. "But she's the Goddess of Life, not of hilarity." 

False snorted. 

Techno rolled his eyes. "Just...don't do that again."

"You mean...don't do it again - " False eyed Luna. " - in front of you." 

"You're going to be the death of me," Techno said weakly.

"Says the person who made fun of orphaned children," Tommy piped up.

Techno glared at him. "Aren't you supposed to be _my_ fan?"

"Sorry, Technoblade," Tommy shrugged. "I'm merely stating the truth." He grinned cheekily. "You didn't pay your frent."

Techno growled before stalking off, Ash sighing and retreating to his original position on Techno's balcony. 

"Wanna go again?" False asked Luna.

"NO!" came about a dozen shouts from all directions, including Techno from his position by the door, Cleo and Stress, Iskall, Mumbo, Grian, Wels, Skeppy, BBH, A6D, Etho, Keralis, Deo, and Pigicial. There was even a late call from Xisuma as he stumbled through the door, looking sleepy. 

"Don't worry," False told Luna loud enough for everyone to hear. "They all sleep eventually."

She hid a silent grin when Cleo rubbed her forehead, Stress groaned, and Tommy facepalmed. 


	55. Author's Note: Part 2

Hey to all my wonderful readers! Wow. Just...wow. I never, in all my years of living, expected so many people to like the things I wrote. It truly means something to me, each and every one of your (very angry) comments, and laughing at the pain that I make you guys go through. Usually, I put in an author's note before the final chapter of an arc, but it would REALLY be mean to separate the next two chapters, so we're just going to have to deal with one now.

Don't worry, a chapter will still be updated ~9 pm PST, as per usual.

I would also like to personally (fangirl) and squeal over the very first fanart I've ever been given. It's wonderful to see someone who has talent in drawing, which I severely lack. It's Technoblade and Ash, drawn by TheShinySnivy. It's a beautiful piece that I could never hope to _ever_ draw. Trust me. _Ever_. Thank you for the beautiful piece of art!

Oh, and I'm going on a road trip tomorrow, so I will be updating from my phone. The third arc will have to be pushed back because I can't really write on the road (I mean I could but they wouldn't be that high quality, so I'm not going to), so you guys will probably have to wait a week after the finale of the second arc is published! Sorry, haha. 

Anyway, thank you guys SO MUCH for taking the time out of your day to read my works! Each and every single one of you means SO MUCH TO ME, and it's always fun seeing your reactions when I leave cliffhangers. 

Your neighborhood author,

Aria_Cinabun


	56. Arc 2: Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! There was an author's note updated today as well, so if you want to check it out, go to the previous chapter! If you don't want to read it, or have already read it, ENJOY THE STORY!
> 
> The finale will be posted tomorrow!

"Are you, Clementine Evalangine, willing to take this oath?" the archbishop said, as he held the replacement crown that Cleo had found buried in the depths of that hidden room of the mountains. It was like the ones Queen Ivy had worn - a flower crown made of jewels, and she'd heard a few grumbles about how it was 'un-queen-like'. The citizens were going to have to get  _ used  _ to unqueenlike. Cleo had chosen to hold the ceremony in the gardens, instead of the throne room, so that the phoenixes could be there. 

For now, Sinner had been announced as dead...but False had seen the looks some of her old serving maids, and some of the Northern prisoners, had thrown her. They knew who she was...but they kept her secret, because of what she'd done for them.

And so now she stood with Cleo and Techno, a bit down from the makeshift dais Cleo had managed to make - on her third try, with the help of Rowan guiding her - the rest of the hermits, the Northerners, and the uncorrupted royalty from the South, behind her. 

False felt a proud grin cross her face as she watched Cleo say, with barely a tremble in her voice, "I am willing." 

"Will you solemnly promise and swear to govern the Southern Kingdom, and your possessions and the other territories to any of them belonging or pertaining, according to their respective laws and customs?"

"I solemnly promise to do so."

A slight breeze filled the courtyard at Cleo's words, and False could've sworn she saw the purple eyes of Miracle for just a second - but she blinked and it was just the trees that swayed in the background. 

"Will you to your power cause law and justice, in mercy, to be executed in all your judgments?"

"I will."

"And do you - " the archbishop's eyes met Stress's over the book he'd been holding. They'd added an extra oath in there last minute, and False wasn't sure whether he approved or not. "Do you, Clementine Evalagnine, promise to uphold the treaty between the North and South, so that there will be no more wars in these kingdoms, so that there will be no more death besides that which is natural?"

False saw Cleo take a deep breath. "I promise so." 

"Then rise, Clementine Evalangine, as Queen of the South." The archbishop placed the jeweled flower crown upon Cleo's head, taking his hands away.

Cleo rose and turned to face the crowd, smiling, a blush crossing her face.

And cheers erupted from all around.

* * *

_ I thought you said we were going to bed,  _ Luna said crossly, as False walked down the hallway a bit after midnight. 

"I am," False told the moon phoenix. "I have to do something first. And I hate parties." She smiled a bit tipsily - she wasn't  _ drunk _ , exactly, but she wasn't sober, either. And then laughed when she remembered Techno swatting Tommy for trying to sneak a bit of alcohol. 

Luna snorted, but followed False down the passageways as they headed deeper into the castle.  _ Where are we going, again? _

False opened her mouth to answer, but a little girl came around the corner. She had to be around maybe seven or eight, with pigtails and brown hair, and huge green eyes. Her eyes widened when she saw False. "Lady False!"

False winced at the title, but knelt down. "Are you lost?"

The little girl grabbed ahold of her sleeve and tugged her back the way she'd come. "Gotta show you somethin'." 

False laughed as she was pulled along. "Okay, okay! I'm coming." Luna chirped in surprise, but slunk along after False, who was jogging by now, still being pulled along by the little girl with pigtails. "What's your name?"

"Angelica," came the solemn reply. "But people call me Angie." 

"It's nice to meet you, Angie," False said with a smile, glad that all the innocence hadn't been ruined in the South. Angie reminded her...of, well, herself - not in the looks; they were completely different - but in the talking she'd done, in the place she was. "Where are you taking me?"

"Magical fairies," Angie said.

False threw a look at Luna, who chirped peacefully. 

Angie stopped in front of a painting. "That lady you?"

False looked up at the painting, and her eyes widened when she saw Cleo, and Stress, and herself - albeit the fact they were older in the picture, even though Cleo and Stress wore the same crowns they did, and she didn't carry any swords with her at this moment. She'd left them in her room, for fear of people recognizing her as Sinner. "Yes. That's me." 

Angie grinned at her, and False realized she was missing her two front teeth. She stepped forward, and touched the painting. "Behind." 

False grasped the rim of the painting, and tugged, revealing a well-lit passageway behind. "Are the fairies behind here?" she asked kindly.

Angie scrambled over the lip of the painting. "Yeah," she said, grabbing ahold of False's hand once more and leading her down the passageway. 

_ I can barely fit,  _ Luna grumbled. 

_ Maybe you should lose some weight,  _ False teased. 

She heard Luna scoff.  _ Oh, please.  _

Around the corner of the passageway, it opened up into a room with a single pillow on top of it. There was nothing on the pillow except old eggshells, and False walked over and picked up one of them. It was green, with brown root-like tendrils mixed in. It smelled a bit like earth - like  _ Rowan _ , actually. 

_ Those are phoenix eggs,  _ Luna said reverently. She hopped closer and nudged another piece, revealing a navy eggshell part with white speckles.  _ Our eggshells, False.  _

False spun to face Angie. "When did you find this?" she asked the girl, who was standing near the wall, a hopeful look on her face. "How did you find these?"

This must be the room that Cleo had been in when she and Stress were...otherwise occupied falling off cliffs. 

"She promised me a doggie if I stopped an evil person," Angie said, her green eyes big and scared. "She said that I would be a hero, like those knights fighting dragons in the books." Angie stomped her foot. "I don't wanna be those ladies in the towers getting rescued. She told me I could fight bad people."

"Who's she?" False whispered.

"That would be me."

False spun, reaching for swords that weren't there, and Luna let out an angry screech as part of the opposite wall slid down to reveal the queen - no, not the queen anymore,  _ Cleo  _ was the queen - Cleo's mother. 

"I don't think so," the queen sneered.

People poured out of the alcove behind Cleo's mother, and False stiffened as all the limbs in her body wouldn't let her move. She couldn't even talk, could only move her eyes to watch as fourteen people surrounded them. Luna couldn't move as well, her beak open, her wings spread, an angry expression on her face.

_ LUNA!  _ False screamed.

_ I'm fine, but I can't move,  _ Luna told her, her telekinetic voice in False's head sounding pained as both of them put in all their effort to move.

"Release her jaw, so she can talk," Cleo's mother ordered one of the people behind False.

"What is this?" False burst out, working her mouth furiously. "What kind of magic is this?"

Cleo's mother laughed. "Oh, Sinner," she purred. "You'll find that corrupted Healers, while they cannot heal, have an interesting power when it comes to blood."

"They can control blood...?" False said softly, her mind reaching out for an ounce of water,  _ anything at all _ \- 

"Don't try anything," the queen warned, drawing a nasty looking black and red weapon, engraved with red shining wounds. "I made sure this place was bone-dry." 

False felt tears slicking her cheek, suddenly, and she couldn't reach up an arm to wipe them away. "Why are you doing this?" she asked, choking back a sob.

The queen walked towards her, lifting the dagger to rest below her neck, and now Luna was scrambling furiously, but both of them were helpless beneath the queen's...corrupted blood mages. "You think I give a single ounce for my freedom?" she spat. "There is no power in the poor. I would rather die, and watch my daughter's world  _ burn _ , then live to tell the tale. I would rather inflict all the pain in the world onto you and your pitiful friends than survive." 

"Don't do this," False said softly, staring into the face that reminded her so much of her ginger-haired friend, with the exception that Cleo was far kinder, and far better than her mother would ever be. "Please."

The queen regarded her for a second, withdrawing her dagger, and stepping in between False and Luna. For a second False thought she would take the offer. 

"Burn in hell, Sinner Symmetry," the queen snarled

And then she plunged the dagger into Luna's side. 

Even the seven blood mages that held Luna in place could not stop the screech that escaped the moon phoenix.

And False screamed too, a rush of anger and disbelief filling her as the grasped the cords of life in the fourteen blood mages - and  _ snapped them _ .

The queen was thrown back in the blast of magic that followed, slamming against the rocky wall and falling to the floor, blood staining her forehead. All fourteen of the blood-mages  _ vanished  _ instantly, but False didn't care - 

False didn't care as she fell at Luna's side, her hand instantly going to the moon phoenix's ghastly wound. "Heal," she whispered, desperation filling her tone. "HEAL, DAMN YOU!"

But blood ran through her fingers, and blood ran down her arm, and the wound wasn't healing. Wasn't closing. 

"Luna," False sobbed. "I'm sorry. So sorry."

_ It's...fine...False,  _ Luna said into her brain, sounding eons away, when in reality she was at False's feet, her lids blinking slowly, unable to raise her head.  _ You...cannot...fix...wounds...made...from...death-blades. _

"I can!" False sobbed, pressing harder over the cut in Luna's side. But the magic wouldn't flow into Luna, wouldn't fix it. She wasn't strong enough. She wasn't  _ good  _ enough. "Luna. Please. Stay with me."

_ I...love...you...False,  _ Luna gasped out, her voice fading and her eyes snicking close for a brief second.  _ I...will...see...you...again...in...the... afterlife. _

"NO!" False screamed, her voice cracking halfway through. But no matter how much energy she put into the moon phoenix, the cut wasn't closing. Her mind flitted to Rust, and what he'd done. "Choose Rebirth, Luna."

_ How...do...you...know...of...that?  _ Luna's surprised whisper filled her mind.

_ " _ DO IT!" False screamed. 

_ But...I...wouldn't...see...you...again... _

"I DON'T CARE!" False shrieked, tears falling steadily down her face. "You may not remember me...but you will live on, even if you lose your memories, you will find another. Please, Luna. Choose Rebirth...and live on. For me."

Luna stared at her for a second, and then turned her voice to someone that wasn't False.  _ Goddess of Change, I choose Rebirth. The option was given to me, and I use it now. I choose to be reborn to another, to live again elsewhere, as my heritage says that all phoenixes can do.  _

False sobbed again, releasing her hand from the wound, and throwing herself over Luna's body, glad that the moon phoenix hadn't chosen to wear a saddle that day so she could feel all her feathers.

And a voice that False now recognized - the voice of Miracle, the Goddess of Change - spoke. 

** It shall be granted. **

"I love you, Luna," False said quietly, unwilling to wipe the tears that rolled down her face in huge waves. 

_ I...love...you...too...False.  _ Luna's blue eye looked at her one last time.

And then False withdrew her hands as a flash of heat burned through the moon phoenix's body. 

And Luna turned to white dust and navy blue feathers, not a single thing left behind save that. The bond in False's mind  _ vanished _ , and she was alone.

She was alone.

False raised her head and howled as the ash of the moon phoenix settled around her, much as Rust's had, though that had been grey, and now the pure white that Luna's was. Navy feathers littered the area, sticking to False's coat, her hair, the ground - so many, but so few compared to what Luna had carried. 

And in her sadness, and in her noise, she did not hear someone creep up behind her.

She did not know, until a rush of pain hit her, and False looked down to see a knife sticking out of her stomach. The same knife that had killed Luna, borne by the queen, who stood over her as False fell to the side, mouthing words that False couldn't hear.

And suddenly, everything was blurry, and she was dizzy. False blinked, one final tear dripping down her face.

And there was silence, now.

Pure, utter stillness.

And then there was peace. 


	57. Arc 2 Finale

"Queen, now, huh?" Stress joked as she nudged Cleo lightly in the side. 

"Shut up," Cleo said, adjusting the crown on her head. It looked a lot lighter than her mother's crown, that was for sure. She turned to Iskall, who was walking alongside them as well. "How did I do?"

"Oh, that was an epic coronation of doom," Iskall said, smiling at her. "Where are we going, again?"

"To where it all started," Cleo said. "The painting where I found the phoenix eggs." She smiled sheepishly. "I would grab False, but she's probably sleeping."

"Five dollars says she's flying on Luna," Stress muttered. 

Cleo laughed. "Yeah, that too." 

Glacier, Rowan, and Ash were off flying, and they had invited Luna, but the moon phoenix had declined - semi-politely; saying she wanted to spend more time with False, and if anyone ever told False that she would kill them. They had all understood, because Luna had been five and a half weeks without False, and probably missed her a lot, even if she didn't say that. 

"This is probably a private thing, then, right?" Iskall said uncomfortably. "I should probably go."

"No!" Stress grabbed his arm. "You're our friend. It would be nice for someone else to be there." She smiled, and nodded to the sword at his side. "Plus, you know how to use that. What if assassins jump us?"

Iskall raised an eyebrow at her. "You two are some of the strongest mages, according to Technoblade," he pointed out. 

Cleo grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, but we'd still like it if you came along." Finally, after a moment, Iskall smiled back, continuing to follow Cleo. 

Cleo stopped in front of the painting of herself, Stress, and False, and touched the crown on her head that matched the painting.

"Wow, that's eerie," Iskall whistled. "You guys look alike."

Stress rolled her eyes. "Yes, we're literally the reincarnations of those people," she pointed out.

"Oh. Right."

Cleo frowned as she noticed the painting was slightly ajar. "Did someone find this place?" she asked, putting her ear up to the painting. 

Someone screamed. It was muted, as if magic was trying to stop it - but Cleo could hear the pain in that persons voice. She couldn't recognize it...but someone was screaming beyond the painting. 

Cleo threw open the painting and clambered through, running through the hallway just in time to see her mother come up behind False and stab her in her stomach.

Cleo _shrieked_. Stress screamed.

Iskall drew his sword.

A wave of earth magic filled her, and Cleo sent a spike of rock to throw her mother aside, as she rushed towards False, even as the girl fell to the ground, her eyes closed, barely breathing, the nasty looking black dagger still embedded in her chest. 

"False," she said, tears leaking down her face as she beheld the girl's blue eyes as they finally opened. Cleo tugged the dagger out, and False winced - but the wound in her stomach wasn't healing, and Cleo stared in horror as False's breathing grew shaky.

"...Cleo...?" Such a small, fading voice. One that whispered of numbered minutes, perhaps seconds left. 

Cleo sobbed and Stress was crying on False's other side as well, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Iskall slice through her mother's stomach with a vicious blow, knocking her out for good. "We're here, False. You're going to live."

In her heart, she knew she was lying.

False smiled, barely, a small hint of sadness and laughter as a tear trickled down her already wet face.

And Cleo realized that False would _never_ let the queen stab her, not unless something bad had already happened, and she'd been paying attention to that instead.

"Luna didn't live," her friend whispered. "Neither will I."

And when Cleo looked around, at where Stress and she was kneeling, she saw white powder littering the floor, and navy blue feathers.

And she realized that Luna had died here. 

She closed her eyes and let the tears trickle down her face, and Stress was sobbing loudly, and even Iskall was crying as he knelt down too. 

"Why...are...you...crying?" False said in the barest of whispers. 

"Because you're dying!" Cleo shrieked. "You're dying and I can do _anything to save you_."

"Did you think I was immortal?" False said. "We all die, Cleo. I just beat you to it." Her eyes focused on Stress, then Iskall, and then Cleo. "I...love...you...guys. All...of...you."

"I love you too," she heard Stress whimper, and Cleo was too far gone to do anything. 

And then False's lively eyes faded, until she was staring into nothing.

And Cleo knew she wasn't there anymore. 

She could only hold False to her knees numbly, praying that this was all just big practical joke - that False was joking. 

But in her heart, in her head - she knew it wasn't. 

And False was gone.

_Really_ gone. Not just vanished. _Dead_. Gone. Forever. 

Stress reached over and closed False's eyes. "Find your peace," she said softly. "You have found your redemption - now rest in silence."

Cleo was numb. Stress was crying now, her head bowed over False's body, tears dripping onto False - False, her wonderful friend who would never smile again.

False and Luna, who had died together.

"Go tell the others," she told Iskall numbly. "They...they need to know."

She heard Iskall get up, listening to her.

But she couldn't do anything but cry.

Because False...

False was gone. 

Her _friend_ was gone. 

She would never see her laugh again. Never see her and Luna joke around. Never talk about squirrels with her. Never train with her as they'd originally planned. 

Never do anything with False again.

* * *

Iskall ran down the passageways, a lump in his throat. He'd wanted to stay with Cleo and Stress, but he knew that they'd be sitting there for a very long time - and she was right, the others deserved to know. He knew that Stress and Cleo were in no position to go anywhere, or _do_ anything for a very long time. 

Tears flowed down his cheeks easily, and he refused to wipe them aside at the memory of False closing her eyes one last time. At the feathers and the ash that had surrounded them. 

He burst into the dining hall, where everyone else lay, partying. Deo, Pigicial, and Tommy seemed to be playing some kind of card game in the corner, and Techno was walking Wels through some swords moves. 

At the loud noise, Techno whirled, the closest, and saw him. "What happened?" he said, noting the tears on his cheeks. "Where are Cleo and Stress?"

Iskall could only breathe heavily as he tried to find the words to explain what was happening. What he couldn't _believe_ was happening. 

"Are you okay?" Wels asked him.

A cool breeze flew through the open door, and Techno turned towards it, squinting. "Is it _snowing_?" he asked in incredulity. "It's too early to snow that much - or that hard - " He turned back to Iskall. "Where's Stress?"

Iskall took a deep breath.

"False is gone," he said finally, feeling numb. 

"What do you mean, _gone_?" Tommy demanded, standing up in a spray of cards. 

"She's dead," he said softly, reaching up to wipe the tears away on his green shirt. 

"But...she's been dead before..." Grian pointed out. "A lot, actually. She's just...not here, right?"

"No," Iskall said. "Cleo...and Stress...are with her right now. Her... - " He could barely cough out the word. " - body. And Luna is gone as well. Ashes and feathers."

For the first time ever, Techno dropped his sword. It clattered against the ground, horror on his face. 

A mixture of horror and disbelief and sadness on _everyone's_ faces.

Iskall covered his mouth to contain the sobs that threatened to burst out. He couldn't take this. "I watched her die."

And everything became chaos. Shouting, and screaming, and crying - that's all it was.

But all Iskall could do was sink numbly to the floor.

* * *

She was lying on the cold stone of the room, covered in feathers and dusted in Luna's ashes - 

And then she was not. 

False took in a breath, and found herself in the ruins of Hermitville,a the edge of the Southern Forest. People lay all around her, from where she stood - for some reason, dressed in black and dark blue. People were crying.

"Why are you crying?" she asked the person who was next to her - and realized with a start it was Pigicial, and Skeppy was on her other side. 

"They can't hear you."

False turned to see a girl - _Sinner_ \- step up beside her. She was see-through and glowed a gentle grey. "You - you're a ghost."

"So are you."

False looked down at her body, and realized that she was, indeed, a ghost. Her steps didn't even make an indent in the snow. _Oh. I died._

False looked up again to the tree, and she saw a small plate on the ground, a symbol of a phoenix danced on top. She suddenly recognized the three people next to it - Cleo and Stress and Techno. "Oh."

"Oh is right," Sinner snorted. "You had to go and die, didn't you?"

False ignored her as she stepped through the crowd of people - literally _through_ \- her eyes going to all the people around her, noting each of them.

Tommy. Deo. BBH. Etho. Tango. Grian. Mumbo. Doc. Zedaph. Tango. Impulse. 

Everybody from Hermitville, all her friends from the North, and her team from the Nether - they were all there, bowing their head at _her_ grave. Which was slightly awkward. 

Wait, no. Her and _Luna's_ grave. 

False felt a small smile cross her face as she stepped in between Cleo and Stress, who were all crying heavily now. Ash, Rowan, and Glacier were standing in the back, their heads bowed as well. Sinner stood behind her, looking slightly annoyed, and False knelt down and read the wordings. Dozens of small inscribed words, in different handwritings - and as she peered

**_False and Luna | Two pairings who could never be separated, not even in death_ **

_'Don't judge someone until you heard their story.'_

_'You asked for redemption? You've earned it. Again and again.'_

_'I will always care for you, even if we're not together, and even if you're far, far away.'_

_'You kept a lot to yourself because it was difficult for people to understand.'_

_'You can never love people as much as you can miss them.'_

_'A million words would not bring you back. I know because I've tried. Neither would a million tears - I know because I've cried.'_

_'People don't appreciate you, or know your true value, until you are gone.'_

_'I will write peace on your wings, and you will fly all across the world.'_

_'Fly together on wings of gold, because you will be together forever.'_

_'I will never forget you.'_

False felt tears prickle at the corners of her eyes as she traced the messages - even though they could not see her, and she could not feel the ground - traced the messages her friends had left her.

One last time.

* * *

"This was not supposed to happen."

Stress spun to see Miracle standing there, a sad look on her face. "What do you mean, _this wasn't supposed to happen_?" she hissed.

"False wasn't supposed to die," Miracle said softly.

"THEN FIX IT!" Cleo howled next to her, startling just about everybody. "BRING HER BACK!"

"I may be the Goddess of Life, but I do not mess with that, that is not mine," Miracle said softly. 

And then she faded away.

Stress let out a nasty-sounding sob, and dropped to her knees, tracing the message she had left False. 

_'Let go of all that weighs you down. Heal those broken wings with love. Because one day, you will fly again.'_

Stress felt the snow swirl faster around her, though she tried to control it. She hadn't been _able_ to control her magic for days, now - so it had been snowing everywhere, when she traveled to Hermitville to bury False - snowstorms were frequent, now. 

But what was the cold compared to the emptiness she felt inside her? What was the cold compared to the cold she felt at Luna and False's absence?

* * *

"False."

False turned to see Miracle standing there, a sad expression on her face. 

"False, it's time to go." Miracle pointed behind False, and False spun to see a gleaming white archway. "You earned it."

"I, for one, am leaving this horrible place," Sinner sniffed, walking through the archway without so much as a look back. 

False stared at the archway, and then at Miracle, who smiled at her sorrowfully. "I think I'll stay. Just for a little bit."

Miracle nodded at her, and vanished.

Without Sinner in her head, she felt more at peace, as the snow swirled around them - even as she watched her friends cry, she felt...at rest. Of course, she wanted to go back.

But she also wanted what she'd earned - to _rest_ , without fighting, without pain. Without people screaming at her, without any more deaths.

* * *

"Goodbye, False," Cleo whispered.

"Goodbye," Stress echoed.

"We'll miss you," she heard Technoblade say.

And the voices of the hermits, the voices of all of those False had ever known, even the Asian girl called Camille, who'd been rescued from the Nether - followed her lead and spoke.

To say goodbye, one final time.

* * *

And even though they could not see her, and even though they could not hear her, False spoke.

"Goodbye."

One final voice.

One last time.


	58. Arc 3: Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I typed this chapter out on my phone. I had to. I couldn't keep looking at your heartbroken comments.  
> Before you leave saying 'oMg tHiS iSn'T aBoUt fAlsE aNyMoRe uNsUbBiNg' I implore you to continue reading. Have patience. All will make sense with time.  
> Also - sorry in advance, no more daily updates. Heh.

Sym awoke in a cold sweat, staring at the spruce bars that held the roof up. Around her, she could hear the soft breathing and the occasional snores of the other girls her ages. 

She'd had an odd dream. Maybe once before, she'd have gone to the dreamer, and had the visions in her sleep sent away, but she wasn't too eager to share the inner details of  _ this  _ dream. It would certainly raise questions to any who had found out.

Sym turned her head to the side and glanced out the window. It was barely light outside, telling her it was around five in the morning, a few hours before her group leader would come in to wake the twelve of them up.

Sym cringed at the accidental thought -  _ twelve _ . 

As a girl, she wasn't supposed to be able to count beyond ten. As a girl, she wasn't supposed to be able to do math. But she could, because of her friend - Hanna Peyton, who had disappeared six months ago. The village leader had said she'd run away, and he'd said it with a disgusted tone on her voice. 

But Sym knew that Hanna would never leave any of her friends. Hanna was too caring, too protective of her friends - especially Sym - to do that. Something had happened that had made Hanna run. Something had made her leave the wonderful village they had shared a home in. 

It was illegal to run away. It was illegal, as a girl, to leave the village - but Sym could, occasionally. And today was one of those days. Every seventh day -  _ more math, counting days - _ she was allowed to go beyond the second wall to collect herbs for her duties in the village. 

Sym had been picked to become a healer in replacement of one of the elderly ladies who would soon go beyond the Veil and find her Peace. Unlike the other girls her age, she wouldn't be working in the fields or making dinner, or rearing the children - she would be helping ailing those that were having problems with their skin, or if they'd broken a bone and needed a splint, or if one of the hunters had gotten into a rough spot with poison ivy.

It was her duty. 

And though it would've been considered insurrection, Sym reveled in the idea of going out, alone. In the beginning, perhaps two years ago, before she'd reached twenty-one and had had her necklace personally inscribed to her, she'd had an escort - usually a burly male who had watched her with beady eyes and made her sweat. She hadn't much enjoyed that. 

Now? She was free, every seven days, to go out and collect the needed herbs. Helga, her teacher, and the healer before her, was no longer strong enough to make the miles to collect the herbs for soothing teas, for back pain, and for childbirth. 

Sym blinked as the door swung open, and the group leader, an aging, angry woman named Susan, rapped on the wall with her scarred knuckles. "Up, children," she said in her squeaky, high-pitched voice. "Up!"

The girls around Sym got up, some of them rubbing their eyes, a neutral expression on all of them. They weren't allowed to complain. Weren't allowed to complain about things that simply  _ were _ . That wasn't in their list of duties. 

Sym did her best to pretend that she'd been sleeping as well, instead of thinking for the past two hours, and got up to wait in line for the bathroom. The room was dead silent - perhaps, if they'd been younger, in their mid-tweens, or in their tens, they'd have giggled and whispered. Now...they'd matured, and they knew to be silent. 

It was the Way. 

Sym took a few minutes to wash her hair when her turn came, drying her hair and brushing it out. Beside her, girls did the same, and Sym took a moment to contemplate their hair. Their eyes.

All the same. The same black hair, the same...grey eyes. The Council said it was to prevent people from discriminating merely because of hair color or eye color.

Hanna said it had prevented variations. 

Sym turned and left the washroom, wearing a simple brown dress with a white apron around the front, her hair in a single braid down her back, telling the world she had yet to be married. Yet to be Chosen. 

Susan sneered at her as she passed, neglecting to hand her what she was handing the other girls; their daily assignments. "Good luck beyond the wall, girl. Pity if you were lost."

Sym flinched at the words of contempt - and jealousy - were directed at her, but she inclined her head at the older woman as she'd been taught. "Thank you, Susan. I hope your husband fares well in his recovery." 

Sym fought to keep the small smile off her face when Susan's face grew red and angry. It was well-known that the woman's wife had been attacked by a monster and had just barely survived. She, as a healer, would  _ never  _ let someone die simply because she disliked someone in the family - but that didn't stop her from insulting Susan all the less. 

Sym stopped at Helga's hut, peeking in and grabbing her basket, and the blanket that lay gathered in it. The elderly woman was still sleeping, her soft snores audible from the doorway in which Sym stood. Sym smiled softly, and left, going in the opposite direction of her agemates, wiping the curvement of her lips off her face. The other girl's faces were noticeably blank as well, their grey eyes not straying from their path, not a stray black hair out of place. 

_ Miss Susan would be proud. _

Sym stiffened at the thought. She had never  _ liked  _ Susan - not that anybody had ever cared about her dislikes or likes, that was the Way of things - but she'd also never hated her.

Hate was reserved for the darkness that lay beyond the wall. Hate was reserved for the unnatural things - magic; people who used magic. People who used magic were  _ evil _ , the Elders said - they were not to be trusted.

Of course, Sym believed them. Why would they not have her best interest - if not hers, at least her agemates - in mind?

She bowed respectfully to the guards who stood by the front gates. 

One of them looked at her up and down. "Today's the day?"

Sym did her best to shrug nonchalantly. "That is what Miss Susan said. I have no idea." She tried to force a shy smile out of her mouth. "Time seems to fly." 

One of the guards, a male with brown hair and green eyes, nodded sharply at her. "Well, off then, girl. Be back before sunset."

Sym lowered her gaze, so as not to incur his wrath, and nodded, before scurrying out of the first wall. The walk to the second wall was much more peaceful, as the space between the two walls were mostly filled with orchards and fields of grain, an occasional person working in the fields. Sym kept her back straight and her head high -  _ "Not high enough to think yourself better than others, but high enough to show that you are proud."  _ \- and the two guards at the edge of the second wall barely glanced at her as she walked between them.

She made sure to walk a bit ways into the woods before stepping to the side and stopping - and  _ looking _ . At the forest around her, at the darkness that was supposed to lie here, at the evil it had supposedly contained. 

Based on the position of the sun, Sym figured out she had nearly twelve hours before sunset. Plenty of time to find what she needed -  _ and  _ explore. 

Well.  _ Looking around to see if anything new was growing.  _ Curiosity wasn't much liked in the village. It was marked as an Unneeded Trait - along with Courage, Selfishness, Hatred, Creativity, Willfulness, and Love. To be honest, Sym had no idea what half of those words meant - what was  _ love _ ? It sounded like a stupid word, anyway - and one that the Elders had declared unneeded. Obviously, it wasn't - the village was doing just fine without it. 

Of course, those were the  _ female  _ Unneeded Traits. Sym had no idea what the males' were, and she didn't ask. She didn't doubt it was filled with more words she didn't understand, and would never know the meaning of. 

There was a single dictionary in the school, but Sym had had only three years of schooling, from when she was five until she was eight, learning and stretching her mind. After she was eight, she and her agemates had been assigned their necklaces, which protected them from the chaos that was magic, and they'd been taught other duties. 

So, Sym couldn't understand what the squiggles on the paper had meant. She couldn't use one of the pieces of charcoal to copy the squiggles into what she knew had to have  _ some  _ meaning - she'd seen the younger males trace curvy and blocky squiggles on paper, laughing at it. 

But the Elders knew what they were doing. If Sym, as a female, wasn't supposed to be looking at squiggles, or drawing squiggles, there was obviously a good reason behind it. Those squiggles had to have powers only males could read - and the Elders were trying to keep the females safe. It was the only thing that made sense, really. 

She'd invented her own language. 

Sym picked up the small leather-bound journal that had previously belonged to Helga. It was filled with small drawings of the different plants, and small lines marked the edges of the paper to show which type of plant it was - poison, healing, calming, sedatives, etcetera. Glancing around to make sure nobody was looking at her - of course, nobody was, she was in the middle of a forest with no path in sight, and hunters only came out twice a week. Not that she was supposed to know that. 

Sym flipped open the journal to the last page, where a series of symbols - small arrows pointing in different directions, occasional small lines accompanying them. It was her  _ language _ . Her biggest secret. Maybe she should tell the Elders she'd discovered a way of talking on paper that  _ females  _ could use - they might be proud. 

Then again, they might Reset her. Curiosity and Creativity were two Traits not allowed, and she had used both. Reluctantly, Sym once again opted to keep her journal a secret. 

But at least she could read her notes on where to go since the last time she'd been here. 

⤫⤐ ➳⁜ ⤋⬲ ⤾ ⥴⁜⬲ ➥⤐⬲⤑ ⇶ ⇟⤑⬄ ⬲⤾⤨⤐ ↓⁜ ➥⤰⤞※ ⥻ ⥥⬲☋ ⤾ ⇟⬂⬵ ⥽⬲☋※↾⟴⬵  ** | **

⇍⤐⥻⬂☋ ⬳※ ⬵⟴ ⥽⤞※ ⇖※⥄⥻

➳⁜ ⤋⬲ ⇍※☋⥻ ⥽➥ 

⤞⤰⥹ ⟴ ⇟⬲ ** | **

⥽↠ ⥽⬳⤰☋ ⤾ ↠⤑☌ ⬳⤾⥹☋ ⥴⥥⬲ ⥹⟴☋ ⤋⬲ ⤾ 

➥⤐⬲⤑ ⇶ ⤞⥥⬵ ⇟⥽⥻ ⇍⤑⇖※ ⤞⥥⬲ ⤞⤰⥹⥻  ** | **

_ [Disclaimer: Before you search up what this means, I made the language up (I guess you could try to decode it, if you do - props to you) Sym will slowly reveal the key, and if you want you can come back and decode her previous messages.] _

Sym frowned as she read the symbols. Surely that wasn't what she wrote - some of those words made no sense. She sighed, and turned to another page. She must have been writing down her dreams accidentally, instead of where she'd gone last time. No matter - all the more time to find new plants. 

Explore.

Sym tucked her notebook into her apron pocket, shifted the blanket back into place, and looked up at the sun. 

Helga had taught her directions, and while the Elders frowned at that, the elderly healer had pointed out that if Sym were to get lost, she needed a way to find her way back to the village. Grudgingly, the Elders had agreed - but she wasn't allowed to tell others she knew of a way to determine a direction in which she was going, or teach others in any way. 

Helga had said the cardinal directions had been passed down through many generations of healers. The sun rose in the north, and set in the south. Currently, Sym was heading east - and the village lay west of her, behind her. 

The forest was dense, but it was daytime, and Sym listened for spooky sounds, or scurrying noises - but there were none, and she let out a sigh of relief. 

For a brief second, Sym wished that she had those sharp pointy metal things the men carried around sometimes, but she shook that thought off almost instantly, shame rushing through her. It wasn't her duty to rid the world of monsters; it was the hunters' duty. She had no right stepping into the shoes of a male - that wasn't what she'd been born to do. As she walked towards her destination, Sym picked up a few plants that Helga had taught her - also listed in the book - and placed it in her basket.

Rosemary, to be used in oil for anti-inflammatory, and in tea form, could be used as an excellent memory booster for those who wished to remember memories from the past. 

Valerian, a perennial plant used as a relaxant, and a sleep aid, as well as a reliever of indigestion. 

Feverfew, a small, daisy-like flower that helped prevent headaches and migraines. Of course, it also caused a bit of nausea, and didn't always work all the time. But it was spring, and Sym knew come winter  _ someone  _ would need it. 

A bit of beth root, in the colder spots - they grew in the colder areas - to assist with cycle issues in females, and helped with breathing problems. 

It wasn't exactly warm enough for aloe vera - Helga had some growing in a pot back in the greenhouse, but Sym looked for it all the same. She didn't find any, though. 

When Sym finally stepped on the other side of the forest, and the sun hit her face, she closed her eyes and breathed out, setting the basket down by the nearest tree, and covering her herbs and plants with the blanket. 

She'd discovered this place about a month and a half prior, when wandering aimlessly searching for ferns. 

It was the ruins of an old village, covered with vines and partly collapsed, the blackened ruins of wooden buildings covering the floor. Occasionally, when Sym poked around, she found piles of cooled ash where the wind couldn't blow it away. A large crack rent the earth, splitting what Sym supposed was the main street down the middle. The walls were partially burned, but collapsed, allowing Sym to step into an area that had been hit by the wrath of what she assumed was magic.

This was her biggest secret.

The Elders had said that everything outside their village was poisoned, and Sym had believed them - until now. This was another sign of life - at least, it had been. People besides them were  _ out  _ here, living. And by the lack of bodies - Sym shivered at the thought - nobody had died here. 

She had no doubt the Elders would Reset her if she told them about this place. Not that she planned to. This was  _ her  _ secret. 

Absently, Sym scanned the houses - one of them was made of a whitish block she didn't recognize, and grey terracotta. There didn't even seem to be a common theme around here, not like her village. Another home was made of spruce wood, towering up into the sky, while a third, this one with spikes of earth going through its pink-mushroom topped roof, was also made of the whitish stuff she couldn't identify. 

Sym plopped down next to her basket, reaching into her apron and pulling out her journal. She also took out her stick with a tiny bit of charcoal from Helga's fire, and flipped open the journal past the drawings of the plants, and then past her arrow scribbles, and onto the last portion of the book.

_ One-third _ , she remembered Hanna saying. She could almost see the older girl sitting in front of her in a corner of their living space, during free time, pretending to teach Sym how to sew properly, her grey eyes glancing around every so often.  _ If you want to split something into three sections, one portion of it is one-third.  _

Sym flinched at the memory. Hanna had disappeared nearly a week later, with not even so much as a goodbye. The Elders had said she'd run away. Sym didn't believe that. Hanna would  _ never  _ run. 

Sym blinked when the charcoal nub on the end of her drawing stick snapped, and she sighed in irritation. 

Then she frowned, when she took a closer look at the drawing. She'd wanted to draw the scenery - if the Elders ever looked through her journal, she'd say it was one of the places where she found her plants, and it was to help remember the position. Drawing scenery wasn't forbidden.

What she  _ had  _ drawn, however,  _ was  _ forbidden. Sym tore the paper out of her journal angrily, tossing it down onto the ground in a ball of crumpled paper. She was about to pick it up again and toss it as far as she could, when a twig snapped. 

Sym didn't breathe as she turned her head slightly to the side, suddenly glad of the arched branches that hid her slightly from whatever predator was out to get her.

But as she peered through the branches, her heart thumping loudly in her chest, Sym frowned to herself.

A hooded figure was kneeling by a small stone plaque in the ground, muttering something under her breath. Sym felt fear fill her as she caught sight of the metal that lay across the female's - based on the shape of her body, Sym was guessing the hooded figure was female - back. A  _ sword _ . A  _ girl  _ was carrying a  _ sword _ . 

In her haste to get away, Sym accidentally stepped on a stick. And it cracked. Rather loudly. 

The female's head shot up from her kneeling position, and Sym was caught, basket in hand, staring directly into the  _ green  _ eyes of the woman, whose hand was on her sword, half-drawn. Her hood fell down, and Sym shrieked at the sight of orange-red hair piling down her side.

The woman was a  _ witch _ . What kind of person had unnatural hair and eye coloring?

Sym turned and ran.


	59. Arc 3: Chapter 2

"Wait -" Cleo said, extending her hand towards the black-haired, grey-eyed girl that was fleeing from her. 

The girl didn't look back at her, and Cleo rubbed her forehead. She made no move to follow; the girl was probably just curious about the ruins of Hermitville. It was a human thing to wonder. 

_ You good?  _ Rowan said in her mind, having felt the shock down their bond. He was a bit of a way away, lying next to a stream and drinking water. 

_ Yeah, I'm fine,  _ Cleo sent back.  _ It was just some village girl that I scared away.  _

She heard Rowan snort in her head before fading away, leaving her to her own thoughts.

Cleo knelt down again and traced the stone plaque, which was still good-as-new, from her care. "I miss you, False," she said softly, her eyes downcast - but luckily devoid of tears.

Three years. It'd been three years since her friend had died. She and Stress were queens, now, though they saw each other almost every day. Technoblade was instructing her on how to wield a sword and take care of Rowan properly, and the rest of the hermits lived in the castles, occasionally switching between them. And she...she herself had turned twenty-three not a week before.

And still, even after all this time, she found herself missing False. She wasn't the only one -  _ everybody  _ missed False and Luna. She'd thought with time, that her feelings would fade.

But they never did. 

Sinner Symmetry had faded into legend, but Cleo and Stress had been sure to leak the fact that Sinner had killed the Black Knight, returning to the good side before she died. It had never been revealed that False was Sinner. Nor would it ever be. 

Techno had started training a new generation of phoenix riders. Tommy, the boy from the Nether, had had one hatch - a red male phoenix named Rust - and new teenagers had come by to have phoenixes hatch for them as well. Occasionally, Cleo came and taught some classes, when Techno needed a partner to show some flying dynamics, but mostly she was buried deep in her duties; managing taxes, splitting up rebellion in the local villages, and signing forms to make life better for those in poverty. Overall, Stress was doing the same, though her kingdom was in a much better state than Cleo's was.

But they were healing from the war. They were  _ all  _ healing.

A week before False's funeral, a she-demon - that's what Tommy, Deo, and Pigicial called them - had shown up through an obsidian portal, calling herself Naria. She'd brought with her her sister, a portal mage, and together, they'd released the humans from the Nether. The demons had been outraged, and Naria and her sister were never allowed back. Cleo had offered them a home, but they'd declined and just...walked off. 

She hadn't seen them since. 

While questioning the prisoners, Cleo had been surprised to find that Tommy's team - the Lime Llamas, apparently - had been legendary in the arena - and False, even more so. One of the girls, an Asian-looking female named Camille, had even brought the painting of Luna that False had painted, and left behind when she and Tommy had won the finals. The trio had confirmed the painting to be one that False had made, and it now hung in the Northern Castle. Cleo would have preferred it to be her castle, but she knew that False had very nasty memories of that place, and had accepted the fact that False wouldn't have wanted something she'd created to be here. 

Camille had been devasted when she'd learned of False's death, and had even attended False's...funeral. 

And Miracle, the Goddess of Life? She hadn't been seen since Cleo had screamed at her three years ago. Cleo didn't know whether to detest the goddess or just stare in confusion. Sure, it wasn't Miracle's fault that False had died...but if False was so important, why couldn't Miracle just bring her back?

Then again, Miracle was a Goddess. Cleo was lucky she'd gotten away with screaming at her. 

Something rolled across the gravestone, and Cleo made to toss it away, when she noticed with a frown that it was a piece of crumpled up paper. She took it and unfolded it.

And...

And it was  _ her _ . It was  _ her  _ and  _ Stress _ playing  _ cards  _ around a table in Hermitville. It was crudely drawn, as if with charcoal, but it was definitely her. A few unintelligible symbols lay across the top, arrows that Cleo couldn't read. 

"What the hell?" she muttered, staring at it. It wasn't even an  _ old  _ drawing - it was a new one. But Stress had short hair in the drawing, and she had extremely wavy hair - the hair both of the queens had had three years ago. This was an  _ old  _ memory.

Cleo looked up, as if she expected to see the black-haired, grey-eyed woman staring at her, ready to explain, but the forest was silent.

It was always silent. 

* * *

Sym returned to Hermitville expecting to see the witch there, waiting for her. She'd almost  _ recognized  _ the woman, but she hadn't - that woman and another one with brown hair and chocolate eyes had plagued her dreams all week. Yet - she'd never seen a female with a hair color other than black in her entire life. The males all had brown or blonde colored hair, not  _ red _ . It was unnatural. 

Nobody had suspected a thing when she'd returned home to the village, panting, basket in hand, her eyes wide and fearful. She'd debated telling the guards that a witch had been out there, but something in her told her  _ not to _ , so she'd merely said she'd seen a beast. The guards had laughed and rolled her eyes at her, and Sym had kept her head poised, gathered herself, and walked back to the healer's hut to sort and dry the plants she'd found. 

And while she  _ shouldn't  _ be - it was wrong of her, of her position, Sym was Curious. Curious as to who that woman was, and what the plaque read on the ground. Sym recognized the symbols on the flat grey stone as she peered over it, remembered it from the symbols the males wrote down in the mud, and from the glimpses of the journals filled with those words. 

But she couldn't read it.

"Who are you?"

Sym jumped, turning, to face the same female she'd seen last week. She pressed her back against the tree, noticing with a start that the female had her sword out. How  _ dare  _ she use tools that only males were meant to wield? It was unbecoming of her. 

Then again, she was a witch. 

"Don't even think of moving," the red-haired female said coldly, motioning with her sword. 

Sym froze from doing exactly that. 

"No," the female continued. "I'll ask this again. Who. Are. You?"

"I - I'm Sym," she spluttered. 

"What are you doing in Hermitville?"

She frowned. "Hermitville? I just came across this ruined village when I was collecting my herbs." Sym gestured to the basket that lay on the ground not five feet from her. "I didn't know this place had a name."

The red-haired woman eyed her, but sighed and sheathed her sword. "I guess that makes sense." She held out a hand. "I'm Cle - Cleo." 

Sym stared at the hand, her eyes wide. "No - no, this is  _ wrong _ ."

"What?" Cleo said, her mouth twisting in a confused expression. "What's wrong?"

"You!" Sym said. "This. This is wrong. I shouldn't be here. It's not allowed."

"I didn't know this place was off-limits," Cleo said dryly. 

"It is," Sym said softly, staring at the ground. "To women - to my village." She put her head in her hands. "Why am I even telling you this?"

"What do you mean  _ to women _ ?" Cleo exploded, and Sym shrank at the wrath. She half-expected Cleo to send her beyond the Veil. But Cleo didn't seem to be angry at  _ her _ , exactly. 

So when Cleo made no move to attack her, Sym responded. "Going outside the village is not allowed for females."

Cleo gaped at her. "You're in  _ prison _ ?"

"What's a prison?" Sym asked, confused. 

The red-haired female massaged her temples. "It's a place where you're not allowed to leave by your own jurisdiction."

"No!" Sym said suddenly. "It's for our  _ safety _ . There are monsters in the woods."

"Yeah...but there aren't monsters  _ everywhere _ ," Cleo pointed out. "There are plenty of places where monsters don't exist." 

Sym looked away from Cleo. "But that's where the witches are."

Cleo stared at her for a second, and then burst out laughing. "Witches? Witches don't exist."

Sym's mouth dropped. "But - but  _ you're  _ a witch." She flushed - she hadn't meant to let that come out of her mouth.

"I'm not a witch," Cleo said, sounding affronted. 

"You have red hair."

"And...that makes me a witch?"

"Yes," Sym said, confused. She gestured to her own hair. "You don't have black hair, like us."

Cleo squinted at her. "You mean to tell me that  _ every single girl  _ has black hair in your...village."

"Yes. And grey eyes." 

"What kind of place do you live in?" Cleo snorted.

"You're saying you  _ don't _ ?" Sym asked, bewildered. Did Cleo - even though she'd said she wasn't a witch, Sym didn't believe her - live with a gathering of witches?

"No..." Cleo said slowly. "My best friend has brown hair, and another one has pink. Though I think that's dyed. And my other best friend had...blonde hair."

"Only males have blonde hair, though," Sym pointed out.

" _ What _ ?" Cleo yelped. "Are you okay, Sym?"

"I'm fine," Sym said, puzzled. She couldn't even picture a girl with blonde hair - that was reserved for males, only. "Are they sick?"

"No - they're not  _ sick _ ," the red-haired female answered, sounding annoyed. "It's not a  _ sickness _ , it's  _ hair color _ ."

"Exactly," Sym frowned. "The Elders said that any hair color on females that is not black either means they're sick, or they're witches." 

Cleo's jaw dropped. "Excuse me?"

Sym turned around. "Do you...need to get by me?" 

"No - what?" Cleo said. Now  _ she  _ sounded confused.

"You said 'excuse me'." 

"Yeah, it's an expression that translates to 'What?'," Cleo answered slowly. "How could you ever think that hair and eye color means sickness?"

"But it's not normal," Sym said.

"What's  _ normal _ ?"

"What do you mean?" Sym frowned.

Cleo frowned right back. "What's your life like?"

"Well," Sym said. "I wake up in the morning with my agemates - "

"Agemates?"

"The people who share my housing with me until I'm Chosen," Sym explained. How could Cleo not know? Did she not have anybody around her age? 

"Chosen for what?"

"Marriage," Sym said. 

She could almost hear Cleo's teeth grinding, and wondered if she should get the girl something for grinding. But teeth grinding usually happened when people were sleeping, not while they were awake...

"You're telling me," Cleo said tightly. "That you share a house with people of your age  _ until a guy  _ chooses you to be his partner? You don't get a say?"

"Yes," Sym said. "That's the Way."

"You don't get a say?"

"No..." Sym said slowly. "Why should we? It's not part of our duties."

"And...uh, what  _ are  _ your duties?" Cleo asked, shaking slightly.

"Cooking," Sym said. "Cleaning, farming the fields, taking care of children - I'm the only healer, which is why I'm here. I was assigned it." 

Cleo stared at her. "And you're  _ okay  _ with that?"

"That's the Way." 

"Yeah... _ no _ ." Cleo shook her head, running a hand through her hair. Sym noted that Miss Susan would probably scream at her to tie it up neatly - if she wasn't busy running from someone with red hair. "What about doing something you like?"

Sym tilted her head. "Like? What do you mean?"

"Doing something...you want to do," Cleo said slowly. 

"I do like doing this," Sym said. "It's my role in the village. Without me, people would fall ill. People would get sick. Then I would be Reset, because I was unable to perform my duties."

"That is seriously messed up," she heard Cleo mutter. "Okay. What do you  _ want  _ in life?"

Sym thought about that. "Someone to Choose me, I guess. Then I'll be a teacher to the next healer one day."

"That's - that's not...no, just no," Cleo stuttered. "What about if you want to become a poet?"

"What is a poet?"

"Someone who writes words that rhyme..."

Sym frowned. She didn't know half of the words in the sentence. "Write?"

Cleo blinked at her. "Letters? The alphabet? Words?"

"Oh," Sym said. "Only males are allowed to continue learning how to do that. They are afraid that we females would get distracted from our duties." She shook her head. "I am afraid that I do not know how to..." She fumbled for the right words. "Write."

Cleo nearly choked, her green eyes wide. Sym noticed that they were pretty, in an odd sort of way. "What kind of misogynistic culture is this?" she muttered, but not to Sym. Not that Sym understood. She looked up at Sym suddenly. "Do you want to come with me? Back home?"

"What?" Sym said, backing away. "I - no, no thanks. I'm perfectly content with my home." She grabbed her basket before turning and running.

"Of course you are," she heard Cleo call after her. "That's what brainwashing does to people."

It was only until she was safely in the healer's hut did she realize that she'd dropped her journal behind. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Having a bit of a writer's block right now! Updates will be slow, I don't really like forcing words to be written; they don't come out right. Thanks for your patience!


	60. Arc 3: Chapter 3

Cleo was fuming as Rowan landed in the Northern Castle. Her phoenix had overheard the entire conversation and had been angry himself, but Cleo knew that Sym would've run away and never returned if she'd seen Rowan. 

Sym.

The black-haired girl with grey eyes. 

Who knew nothing about the world.

Who reminded her, for some reason, of False. 

Who had drawn the picture of her and Stress, and many more, and carried them in the journal she'd left behind. A journal that was also filled with drawings of plants, some of which Cleo had seen poking out of the basket the girl had been carrying. A journal that was also full of arrow symbols she couldn't decipher. 

Cleo stalked into the dining hall, where dinner was already laid out. Stress, Iskall, Techno, Pigicial, Joe, and A6D were already sitting there, and Cleo had no idea where the other people were - whether they were in the Northern or Southern castle, or busy doing whatever they were doing. 

Stress's eyes brightened when she saw Cleo. "I wasn't expecting you today!" She gestured to a seat by her. "It's a nice surprise. I haven't seen you in a while, Cleo."

Cleo grumbled as she took the seat across from Iskall, Techno to her left. 

"What brings you here?" Techno asked, and she could hear an angry hint in his tone. "I would've assumed you were at Hermitville."

Cleo glared at him. "I was."

Techno sighed. "You spend too much time there."

"You spend too little," she shot back. 

"It's obsessive, Cleo," Techno said, without missing a beat. "You're a queen, now. You have other things to do than visit graves."

Cleo brought the journal out of her pocket and chucked at his head. How  _ dare  _ he? She hadn't chosen to be Clementine Evalangine. She didn't  _ wish  _ to be the queen of the South. She wished everything was like...

Was like...when she was nine. And False was eight. And Stress was seven. And everything had been fine. 

Techno caught the journal in midair and opened it, glancing at her skeptically. "It's a journal...full of flower drawings? You draw?"

"No," Cleo snapped. "There was a girl that left it behind."

"So...why do I have this?" Techno asked slowly. 

Cleo grabbed it from his hand and flipped through the pages to the ones with the arrow squiggles. "That's her writing."

Joe leaned across the table to read it upside down. Even Stress frowned in confusion. 

"Well...it's certainly odd," Techno said finally, his brows furrowing. "Even at first glance, I can't decode it. But that's not out of the ordinary...people do it to decode their own journals all the time." 

"No," Cleo said tightly. She flipped through more pages until she got to the drawings of her. "There are these as well."

Techno stared at them, blinking, looking up at her and Stress, who looked shocked. "Is that -?"

"Yes," Cleo said, cutting across him. She flipped to the next page. "And that's you and Etho and Keralis." She flipped to the next one. "And that's Tommy and Deo and Pigicial in an arena." Next. "Skeppy and BBH and A6D goofing off." Next. "Grian, Mumbo, and Iskall." She looked up at the shocked faces of her friends. "But these are  _ old  _ pictures. Old  _ memories _ . Nothing past False's death...and nothing of False."

Techno stared at the journal. "Well..." he said slowly. "She could be a vision mage?"

"No," Cleo said. "She thought I was a witch."

Stress laughed. 

"Because I had red hair," Cleo finished. "Red hair and green eyes."

Joe frowned. "That's normal enough, though."

Cleo snorted. "It gets even weirder. All the girls - females, Sym calls them - have black hair and grey eyes. But Sym's eyes are blue-grey - not like  _ natural  _ blue-grey - " she floundered for the correct words. "Almost like the grey is trying to block off the color that lies beyond it." She holds up a hand as questions begin to pop out of her friends' mouths. "She doesn't know how to read. She doesn't know how to write. Her dream is to be chosen by a guy for marriage. Chosen. She doesn't get a say."

Everybody's jaws are open. 

"What?" Stress squeaked. 

"Women aren't allowed outside their village walls, apparently," Cleo continued. "She only is to collect herbs - those are the drawings in the journal - for healing. She's a healer for her village. She doesn't know what a prison is, and only the boys are allowed to go to school. She's so  _ brainwashed  _ that she thinks that that's the way of life." She was so  _ angry  _ that she was shaking, her hands clenched into fists. 

An arm touched her shoulder, and Cleo looked over to see Stress grasping it. "It can't be  _ that  _ bad," the brown-haired girl said skeptically. "She's okay with it."

"Yeah, because she's never experienced anything else," Cleo pointed out. "That's all she's known. So, of course, she wouldn't want anything else - because she thinks her life is good."

The door to the dining hall crashed open.

Cleo turned to see Tommy standing there. 

"Techno," the boy said. 

"Uh-huh?" the pink-haired man replied, raising an eyebrow. 

"Another phoenix hatched."

They were all up in an instant, Techno rushing towards the doorway, and then they were all crowding the doorway, as Tommy grinned and led them down hallways filled with paintings and windows until they reached the backdoor. 

Cleo frowned when she saw a girl she didn't recognize kneeling next to a spiky gold and white phoenix, fragments of eggshells lying around it in a circle. Rust, Tommy's phoenix, lay curled nearby, a curious look on his face. Glacier was there as well, and even as Cleo stepped into the courtyard, Rowan and Ash landed in tandem, scaring the tiny phoenix who was nipping the brown-haired girl who was petting it. 

She was wearing a purple sweatshirt, and had long dark brown hair and eyes. A confused look was on her face as she stared up at the others. 

"Who are you?" Cleo demanded. Stress elbowed her.

The girl blinked at her, standing up. The gold and white phoenix nipped at her heels, and she looked down at it with a small smile on her face. "I'm Hanna Peyton."

"I've never seen you in my life," Techno said.

Hanna blinked at him. "I just got here. I...I don't have any previous memories." She smiled sheepishly. "Just flashes. School, small children, and a girl with black hair. I woke up next to a river, and I walked here...and then Tommy was there, and a kid named...Tubbo?...was there and he was holding some eggs of some kind, but he left one behind, and I went to pick it up to give it back to him, just as Tommy came rushing back onto the field, and then..." She gestured helplessly at the phoenix at her feet. "That happened.  _ He  _ happened."

Techno rubbed his forehead. "I  _ told  _ Tubbo to be careful with them," he grumbled, looking up at Hanna. "You have no memories?"

"None," Hanna confirmed, and then winced. "But I  _ know  _ things. I just don't know where I'm from, or my family, or my friends." 

"Well," Iskall said after a moment. "I would  _ say  _ that's odd, but it's not the oddest thing we've ever come across." 

Hanna shrugged. "Can't help you there." 

Techno cleared his throat, and stepped forward. Hanna watched him warily, but made no move to run away. Ash lowered his head and nudged the baby gold and white phoenix. "Welcome to the Phoenix Riders, Hanna."

Hanna smiled tentatively. "Thanks...I guess."


	61. Arc 3: Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah yeah, it's been a while but I've had a writer's block, and like I said I don't want to force it. Hopefully, updates are more common from here on out (though I can't guarantee anything)

_ It glowed. The little egg glowed in front of her.  _

_ Sweat dripped down her back - she shouldn't be here, it was against the law.  _

_ But the girl in the woods had talked about freedom. And she wanted to be free.  _

_ What was freedom? Wasn't she free already? What  _ was  _ being free? She wasn't tied up...wasn't she free? _

_ And ahead of her, the little navy speckled egg with white spots grew brighter, as she put a hand on her forehead, pain filling her skull.  _

_ She...knew things.  _

_ None of this was right. This  _ village  _ wasn't right. Her  _ life  _ wasn't right. This wasn't her life. _

_ She knew Cleo. There should've been another girl with brown hair.  _

_ No. No.  _

_ What was happening? _

_ Why did her head hurt so much? _

* * *

Sym awoke with a cold sweat, at Susan's knock on the door. She closed her eyes, even as the other girls on the beds next to her started to gather themselves, readying themselves for the day, as they did, every day. 

The dreams were becoming more frequent. Sometimes, she saw a bird in the sky, getting bigger as it grew lower. What did it  _ mean _ ? Perhaps she could go see the dreamer, but that would end in her sharing her dreams. Sometimes they were wonderful, full of laughter and jokes she didn't understand, and didn't remember when she awoke. Other times, they were garish nightmares of a black-cloaked man, and a sword that gleamed red with a liquid that looked like blood. Sometimes she could hear the screams still echoing in her eardrums when her eyes snapped open. Sometimes, she could hear whispered words that she couldn't understand. 

But it was too much to understand, and it was too little to grasp anything. She couldn't even  _ being  _ to know what it meant. 

The more she pictured Cleo, the red-haired girl, the more she looked around and realized that everyone here looked the same. And while Cleo might be a witch, she had looked  _ vibrant _ . Alive. Her eyes had looked a healthy green, and Sym thought, in comparison, to her own dull grey ones. 

She sat up and looked at the girls around her, the ones that remained; those that hadn't yet gone to the washroom. Their hair was all the same lengths. It didn't have the waves that Cleo's had. Their eyes were so  _ lifeless _ , and sometimes, when Sym blinked, she thought she saw the color of the sky in the girl's eyes that passed closest to her bed. 

They were all different heights, and they all had different skin colors...why didn't they have different hair or eye colors? Why did they not have brown hair, like the boys? Why were  _ they  _ so different from men? Sym knew from experience that the treatments they used to heal were the same. The Elders had said that they were different types of animals, and therefore should be segregated; because they were different. But Sym had used the same salves and medicine on a male complaining of a headache that she'd used on a female. 

"SYMME TREH!" 

Sym nearly fell off the bed at the use of her full name. She peered up at Susan's angry face. "Yes, ma'am?"

Susan sniffed. "If you wish to still be asleep, girl, you can take that matter to the Elders."

Sym held up her hands. "No, ma'am, I was just - " she fell silent, unable to complete her sentence. "Just...daydreaming." The moment the words left her mouth, she winced. The teachers in schools hadn't liked it when she'd daydreamed. It was considered childish. 

Susan's face twisted into a sneer. "You can report to the dreamer, then," she said coldly. "She will deal with your dissatisfaction in life."

Glumly, Sym slid out of bed, taking a moment to grab her daily clothes, walking into the bathroom, and changing into the dress that she'd grabbed from her nightstand, unwrinkled and brown and droll. 

Cleo had been wearing blue. The teachers in the school had said blue was for the sky, not to wear. Brown was a natural color. Brown was the color that females should wear. Everything else was unnatural. 

When Sym snapped out of her thoughts, she was alone again. When she walked back into the main room, Susan was gone. She breathed a sigh of relief, and then caught herself. She shouldn't be feeling Relief. That was a feeling that wasn't allowed. Perhaps she should be feeling Satisfaction instead...but that wasn't right in this situation. She blushed. She shouldn't be thinking about feelings right now. They were irreverent to the situation. 

As Sym was walking down the road, passing younger females and males, lined up as they should be, she caught sight of a building buried at the edge of town she hadn't seen before. Of course, she hadn't been  _ looking _ , before. 

But that building had been in her dream. 

Sym glanced around her. Nobody important was out on the streets.

Curiosity got the better of her. And then Shame. Shame, because she was being Curious. She shouldn't be feeling Curious. That was wrong.

But she was feeling it anyway, and she could understand why that feeling was wrong. It took ahold of her and made her slip off the road and down to the front of the normal-looking building. She shouldn't be here. She could get Reset if people found her.

Still, that horrible emotion called Curiosity got the better of her, and Sym opened the door. It wasn't locked. There was only one door that was locked, and that was their rooms at night. Just so no beasts got in and killed them. 

Sym frowned when she saw the staircase leading down. Quickly, she glanced around at the other buildings in the village. They all had a purpose that she knew of. What was in this building?

She shut the door behind her, and started down the stairs. Something important had to be in here. Perhaps the Elders forgot about it, and she could be the one that reminded them. That excited her. Perhaps they would make it so she could go outside the village twice a week, instead of once. Maybe she could see Cleo and the other strange brown-haired girl she'd seen in her dream. 

The room that was at the bottom of the stairs was exactly like the one in her dream.

In the middle, there was a pedestal.

And on the pedestal lay a bird egg. Though, it was bigger than normal and colored a navy blue with white spots. She wondered what type of bird lay that egg. 

There was nothing else in the room. Not a single thing. Just the pedestal, and the egg that lay on top.

Sym sighed. She should leave. Go to the dreamer, and listen to Susan like she was supposed to. She should forget about this, and leave it behind. 

But she couldn't.

The egg was  _ calling  _ to her.

And so Sym reached out a hand and touched it. 

And the world went white. She was blown back by  _ something _ , a force that she didn't understand, as there was certainly no perpetual wind force down here in the basement of the building. What could possibly have thrown her back?

When the spots in her eyes cleared, Sym was on her side on the ground, lying against one of the walls. The egg was broken. 

She panicked. She'd broken the egg, somehow. She was going to get Reset. 

And then she heard the tiniest chirp. 

There, looking over the edge of the pedestal, was a bird. Or a dragon, from the storybooks. It was the oddest looking baby bird she'd ever seen. It had blue feathers, and a long tail that faded to white. It had wings that were colored white under them, and a crest of white feathers. 

It chirped at her, tilting its head. Sym could only gape at it. It was beautiful.

"What is going on down here?"

Sym looked up to see one of the Elders. She should know his name. But she was in too much shock to do what she was supposed to do - stand up, dust herself off, bow respectfully, and explain what she was doing. 

On the dais, the little bird screeched, and the Elder's head swung towards it, and Sym felt her heart drop into her stomach. 

"What is this?" he said in a low voice. "What have you done, girl?"

Sym fumbled for words to explain. "I - I, uh - "

He shook his head. "You've ruined us all with your ways." Sym cringed. "I always thought something was off about you. Too straightforward. Not doing as you're told." He snorted at her. "You don't belong in this world."

He reached and grabbed her wrist. 

The bird screeched, and even having been born several minutes prior; it spread its wings and flew. Sym and the Elder watched it in awe as it landed on Sym's shoulder.

She  _ screamed _ , the moment the bird's tiny talons clutched her shoulder. She jerked out of the Elder's grip, her hands going to her neck, which burned. The collar around her neck was glowing. 

The Elder jumped back, as if he'd been burned, narrowing his eyes at her and saying some words that she didn't know. 

Sym panicked and ran. He jumped out of her way, as if he was  _ scared  _ of her. The blue and white bird on her shoulder dug its talons into her shoulder, before taking off the moment that they exited the basement of the room. 

She should have never gone in there. She'd ruined her village. But Sym watched the little bird wheel around in the sky, sadness escaping her. Some part of her wished that it'd stayed. 

It was an animal. Their nature was to be afraid of males and females. The other part of Sym was surprised that it had stayed so  _ long _ .

"GET HER!" the Elder screeched behind her.

Sym's eyes flew to several of the males who wheeled around to look at her at the Elder's voice. The correct thing to do would be to let them take her, probably where they'd taken Hanna, to the Reset room. Everything would be better after that. 

But the stupid part of her was telling her to run. 

So she ran.

And the males chased her. 

She headed for the gates, females jumping aside as she hurtled through them, not even turning and apologizing. She shouldn't even be running. That was a male's job. She should be poised, perfect - 

_ Shut up. _

Sym winced at the intrusive voice that entered her mind; that wasn't hers at all. She should really get that checked. 

Sym ducked under the arms of the two guards that grabbed at her, and she said one of the words that the Elder had said. It sounded right. Released some of her tension. 

She lifted her skirts, her breathing coming in pants. She shouldn't be running.

_ Run. _

She shook her head as she passed out of the gates, trying to get the little voice out of her head. She didn't have voices in her head. She wasn't crazy. Sym peeked over her shoulder to see around five males - with  _ swords _ , mind you - chasing after her.

_ Run, Sym. _

Sym nearly tripped as the voice entered her head again. It wasn't her voice. Not even close. It was female, with a tinge of agelessness in it, though it sounded young. 

She glanced over her shoulder again and nearly ran into a tree because she wasn't looking in front of her. She muttered the word that the Elder had said before -  _ shit _ , whatever that meant - and continued on. Her arms were growing heavy from lifting up her skirts. 

She wished she was wearing the pants that the males were wearing. 

To wish those sorts of things would be treason.

_ You're already running from them,  _ she chided herself.  _ You're already being treasonous.  _

She could hear the males catching up to her, and said the word again, trying to run faster, dodging through the trees. 

Until finally she burst out of the forest and into the ruins of Hermitville, sliding to a halt as she stepped over the ruins of the once-tall fence that used to surround the village. The males stopped at the forests' edge, looking at each other, but they still had their weapons out. 

Sym didn't know what to do next. She had no plan. Just  _ get away _ .

"What is going on here?"

The males - and Sym - all wheeled towards the voice - towards the red-haired witch, who stood at the gates - or where the gates of Hermitville used to be anyway. She looked at Sym, pursing her lips. Then she turned back to males. "Why are you attacking an innocent young girl?"

"It's a witch," one of the males whispered. 

Another one elbowed the first one. "We can take her. Five against one."

Cleo's eyes flashed as she took a step further. "No, you can't."

"Who are you?" a third male asked, gripping his sword unsteadily.

"I'm the Queen of the South," Cleo said.

Sym's jaw dropped. The Elders had taught that the Queens of the North and South were both evil people who murdered others for their gain. They were apparently very powerful  _ witches _ . 

A loud screech sounded from the sky, and a shadow passed over Sym. She looked up to see a  _ huge  _ bird land opposite Cleo, but slightly in front of Sym, protecting her. Or blocking her off from her allies. 

_ Those are not your allies _ .

"Shut up," Sym hissed at the voice in her head. 

_ Rude. _

She smacked herself on the side of her head, opening her eyes to see the males running back into the forest, back the way they'd come. The giant bird wheeled its head towards Sym, and she noticed that it looked like a giant version of the bird that had hatched from the blue and white speckled egg - albeit being green, and all that. 

"Sym, are you okay?" Cleo asked her, her eyebrow furrowing worriedly as she took a step towards Sym.

"You're a witch," Sym choked out.

"Uh - no," Cleo said. "I'm a mage."

"You're the Queen of the South," Sym pointed out. "The Elders - "

"Are  _ clearly _ conceited pompous fools," Cleo interrupted.

"What?" Sym asked. She didn't know what half of the words that just popped out of Cleo's head meant. The green bird watched them warily.

A smaller chirp, and one that Sym recognized, and she looked up to see the navy bird plummet from the sky to land on top of her head.

Cleo gasped and stepped back, both of her hands clapping over her mouth. The giant green bird flapped backward, its eyes going open in surprise. 

"Wow, I didn't think you'd stick around," Sym told the bird dryly.

She could've sworn it rolled its eyes at her as it hopped down onto her shoulder.  _ I don't like being near the ground. _

"YOU CAN TALK?" Sym shrieked, jumping and causing the navy bird to take off again. 

"You have a phoenix?" Cleo interrupted.

"What's a phoenix?" she asked, confused. "It's a bird."

"A magical bird," Cleo said, glancing over at the huge green bird - wait,  _ phoenix _ . "It's...complicated. But you hatched...her?"

"Uh...if by touching it and having it explode around me, sure," Sym said. "What does this have to do with anything?"

Cleo scratched her head. "Well, it seems you're without a home, now." She shuffled her feet. "Seeing as those...guys...attacked you. Or were chasing you."

"Because I committed treason!" Sym sputtered. "It was justified."

"How are you on  _ their  _ side?" Cleo asked. "You're the one running."

"Yeah, because a voice in my head is telling me to."

Cleo looked over at the phoenix who had landed once more on Sym's other shoulder. "You can talk to her already?"

_ Of course, I can. _

Cleo  _ choked _ . 

A distinctly male voice filled Sym's head.  _ Luna? _

_ How do you know my name? _

Too much. Too much too fast. 

Sym felt dizzy, and someone was calling to her, before the world went black, and she was falling.


	62. Arc 3: Chapter 5

_She stood in front of the gates of Hermitville, except they were repaired, now. She turned her head to see people standing behind her - people she inherently recognized, even though she'd never seen them in her life. She saw Cleo, though the girl looked younger, with shorter hair, and the brown-haired girl that she couldn't name._

_She turned back to face the man with dark hair and dark eyes that held a sword in front of her. He smirked at her. "Typical. You should learn to be less predictable, Sinner."_

_Confusion welled up at those words. Why was he calling her Sinner? Her name was -_

_\- was Sym._

_Her mouth opened of its own accord. "Oh yeah? You should learn to leave me the fuck alone, Kian."_

_She didn't understand why she was saying this. She didn't know a Kian. Why he wasn't leaving her alone. She didn't even know that_ fuck _meant._

_Kian sighed. "You will become the next Queen of the South, whether you like it or not, Sin. It is your duty."_

_But wait - wasn't Cleo the Queen of the South? Sym peeked over her shoulder to see the scared eyes of the red-haired girl. There wasn't any fiery anger buried in the depths of her eyes._

_She was so confused._

_"It's not my damn problem that you lost your princess when she was born," she found herself saying, even though she didn't even understand the words that spewed from her traitorous mouth. "I do not want to rule the kingdom."_

_"Why?" Kian asked softly. "If you think there are so many problems, you could fix them. We could fix them - together." He lowered his sword and held out his free hand, the archers behind him lowering their bows as well. Sym stared at it._

_She was so confused. What was happening? Where was she?_

_"And that's the problem," she snarled. "I do not want to rule a kingdom with you by my side. I figured out your master plan, and I want no part in it. The kingdom may accept me, but they will never accept you. I don't accept you. You will murder me in my sleep - you will make sure you are the only ruling power in the world."_

_WHAT WAS HAPPENING?_

_What were they talking about?_

_Kian smirked. "You're smarter than you look," he said, and Sym was taken aback from the sheer nastiness in his voice. "But it matters not. You're coming with me, Sinner. And one day, you will rule the kingdom. And then you will die, you useless fucking girl, and I will lead this kingdom to victory."_

_She realized that she was tightening her grip on twin swords in her hands, and she panicked again. She didn't know how to use swords. Was she planning on attacking him? That would be silly - only males could use swords, but nobody was telling her it wasn't her place, not even the horrible person that was standing in front of her._

_"They told me you would have magic," he said, stepping closer. "But you never did. Our children were supposed to have magic." He stared over Sym's shoulder at the people who stood behind her. "Instead, you return to this backward town of people who are just as useless as you."_

_Magic? Magic was a myth - a legend - something used by witches. She didn't have magic and never had. And children? Was he Choosing her? She didn't want him to choose her. Sure, she wasn't allowed to say that - the males always chose their female - but she_ really _didn't want him. At all._

 _"Oh, fuck off," Cleo said from behind her, and Sym nearly dropped her swords. So the f word must be bad, if her...if the Queen of the South - wait. Kian...Kian had said she was the Queen of the South. Wait, no. Sym was_ supposed _to be the Queen of the South. What was Cleo?_

_She spun to find Kian swinging his sword at her neck._

* * *

She gasped as she awoke, her hand going to the leather choker around her neck, and breathing a sigh of relief.

A hand grabbed her, and Sym looked at the green mattress in front of her. Huh. It was warm.

Then she looked over the side and nearly threw up.

She could see the clouds. They were above the clouds.

"Don't worry," Cleo said from behind her, and Sym spun to see the red-haired woman smiling at her. "Rowan isn't going to let you fall off."

Sym turned back around, and realized they were flying on the giant green...phoenix. She clapped a hand over her mouth, nearly spewing up her nonexistent dinner from the night before. They were flying. On a phoenix.

_What. The. Fuck._

It seemed adequate to use that word, somehow. She had no idea what it meant, or if it was bad.

_Relax, F - Sym. Relax._

Sym frowned when she heard the navy blue phoenix's words in her head. "I have to be dreaming. No way this is real." She looked to the left to see the tiny phoenix flapping it's - _her_ \- wings to keep pace with the larger phoenix.

"You're not dreaming," Cleo told her, though she kept a tight grip onto Sym's waist, just in case she slipped off.

"Magic?" Sym asked the _Queen of the South_. "Phoenixes? Dreams that don't make sense? People attacking me? Voices in my head? You?"

"I don't know anything about dreams," Cleo said after a moment. "But it will all make sense. Look, we're nearly there." Sym saw Cleo's free hand go up - how was the female holding on with _just her legs_ ; that must take some serious skill - and Rowan the green phoenix dived through the clouds.

Sym felt the urge to scream bubble up in her throat...but more so the urge to cheer. She leaned forward as if by instinct, her thighs clamping down on the feathers of Rowan's body.

Through the clouds, a castle appeared. A stone castle with beautiful walls and roofs, surrounded by vegetation - and a courtyard with a single tree. She saw people in the courtyard - two more phoenixes, one with ice-white feathers, the other a red color. As they drew closer, she could see _more_ phoenixes - a rusty red one, and some smaller ones; one of which was yellow and white, another that was sea-green, and a third that was purple.

Everyone looked up as they approached, and Rowan landed with a thump in the clear space.

"Cleo!" she heard someone shout, and she peeked over Rowan's feathers to see a brown-haired girl - the same one from her dreams - rush over to Cleo. "What are you doing here?"

"There have been some complications - " Cleo started.

Sym yelped as she lost grip and slipped off the phoenix; she'd been trying to peek off the side of Rowan and had failed miserably. She landed on her stomach, her face in the grass.

 _Wow, that was horrible._ This from a certain navy phoenix.

"Shut up, Luna," Sym muttered, climbing to her feet and picking the grass out of her hair. The navy phoenix landed at her feet, staring up at her.

When she looked up, everyone was staring at her.

"Luna?" the girl with brown-hair muttered.

Sym looked around at the rest of them - at the tall boy with blonde hair and blue eyes, at the even taller male with pink hair; at a third, shorter boy, with brown hair, and at the last one; a female with brown hair and dark brown eyes that reminded her of -

"HANNA?" she gasped. What had happened to Hanna's grey eyes and black hair that matched her own?

"Hanna?" Cleo turned to her. "You know her?"

"Yeah, she was part of my village," Sym said, confused, when her friend didn't immediately rush to her. "She taught me how to do math."

"When you were younger?" the man with the pink hair asked her.

"Uh...no, around like seven months ago," she said, trailing off.

"Who are you?" the brown-haired girl asked her.

"I'm Sym," she said. She pointed at the phoenix at her feet. "And this is Luna." She pointed at her feet. "I think."

_That's my name. It's two syllables, so it's better than yours._

Sym rolled her eyes. "My full name is Symme, idiot."

The man with the pink hair rubbed his forehead. "Okay...I'm Technoblade." He pointed at the brown-haired girl. "That's Stress. I think you've met Cleo. And Hanna, apparently." He finally pointed to the tall blonde-haired male. "And that's Tommy. We're phoenix riders."

Sym stared at him, blinking.

"Oh," Stress whispered. "You're the girl from the village." She turned to Cleo. "She's the one you told us about?"

"Yeah," Cleo said.

"What?" Sym asked, confused.

Stress smiled at her. "It's nothing, really." She tilted her head at Sym. "Hanna was part of your village?"

"Yes," Sym said, frowning when there was no recognition in Hanna's eyes. "The Elders said she ran away, but I think she got Reset."

"...reset?" Techno asked.

"You know," Sym said. "When they wipe your memories, and start you from scratch - besides basic things? It's if you're too Rebellious, Curious, Creative, or anything like that." She expected the other 'phoenix riders' to agree with her.

Certainly not stare at as if she'd gone mad.

"See?!" Cleo burst out. "I told you _something_ was wrong with her village!"

" _Wrong_?" Sym said, growing angry. "There's nothing wrong with my village! That's just my way of life!"

"They taught you that anyone with different hair colors were witches," Cleo spat. "And that the Queen of the South was a witch."

Sym felt her words dissolve. Okay. Maybe witches weren't bad.

"But you _are_ a witch," the kid named Tommy laughed.

Cleo whirled pointing a finger at him, and he went quiet. "Don't test me. I'm a _mage_ , not a witch."

"Don't know the difference," Sym said.

"Yeah?" Cleo hissed, surprising her. "Well, you also don't know how to read or write properly. Or do math. Or know how to have fun." She turned and stalked off, leaving Sym staring after her.

"Ignore her," Stress said after a moment. "She doesn't like being called a witch. The people in her kingdom have taken to insulting her like that."

"Do you really not know how to read or write?" Tommy asked Sym.

"...kind of?" Sym shrugged, looking over at Hanna. "She and I developed a language together...which I put in my notebook. Which I lost. Do I know how to read those symbols on paper? No. The Elders only taught the males in the village." She shrugged again. "It's the Way."

Everyone was silent. Sym shifted on her feet.

"Yeah, okay, I'm starting to think that Cleo was right about your village," Techno said finally.

"It's not _wrong_ ," Sym said. "It's just the Way."

"...no," Stress said, after Sym saw her and Technoblade exchange a look. "Sym, what do you do for fun?"

Sym was confused. "What do you mean, for fun? Fun is for children." She touched her choker. "I got my runes for aging. I'm grown up now."

Stress let out a breath of air. "...okay, what do you do in your free time?"

Sym frowned. "Free time? Hanna taught me to do math, I guess. Some of us take naps in those periods that the Elders designate for free time - "

" _Designate_?" Techno asked, and Sym could've sworn there was a dangerous note in his voice.

Sym blinked. "Yes. Every seventh day, we are allowed to have an hour to ourselves in our bunks. Sometimes girls talk, they play - Hanna and I did math while we were pretending."

"What do you do for the rest of the week?" Stress said, looking shocked.

"Our jobs?" Sym said, confused. "I'm the only healer in the village - or I was, I guess, before I left - so every seven days I go out beyond the wall. I met Cleo in Hermitville while I was looking for herbs. Some of the girls work in the fields. Tend to the children. Sweep. I don't know. Normal things."

Stress threw _another_ look at Techno. By this point, Sym was getting slightly annoyed - she shouldn't be; she should _control_ her emotions. She was supposed to.

She tried to tell herself she wasn't in her village anymore. She didn't have to follow any of their rules. Cleo sure didn't - she could only assume that the rest of the phoenix riders, and whoever else was here, didn't either.

 _Those rules sound stupid anyway, Sym. You don't have to follow them,_ Luna told her from her position on the ground.

"Well..." Stress said slowly. "You _are_ a phoenix rider now - " This with a glance at Luna. " - even if the timings are a bit odd. And...you know, Luna."

"What about her?" Sym asked curiously, glancing down at the moon phoenix, who was currently preening her feathers.

"It's...complicated," Technoblade said, overriding Stress as she opened her mouth, hesitation visible on her face. "For now...I guess you can join...Hanna, Tubbo, Dream, and George." He turned and smirked at the blonde-haired boy. "And Tommy."

"Hey!" the boy protested. "Shouldn't I have graduated now? Cleo and Stress and - and False - went into warzones faster than I did!" Sym narrowed her eyes over the tripping of his words, but she didn't question it.

"We were in a war, then," Stress said, crossing her arms. She pointed to the phoenix in the corner of the courtyard that was eyeing them lazily. "That's Glacier. Also - Tommy, I'm a reincarnation of Queen Riarna. I think I know what I'm doing."

"What?" Sym asked.

"Oh. Right. I'm the Queen of the North," Stress explained flippantly.

Her jaw dropped. Right. She hadn't been expecting that. Stress _certainly_ didn't look capable of murder...though Sym probably shouldn't judge people based on their stature.

"Also," Stress continued. "I remind, you, Tommy, that we _were_ in the middle of a revolution. I was needed to fight. I fought...nearly died...became Queen. You are not a queen, or a king, for the matter, and I finished my training after everything was over, with Cleo. We don't _need_ you to jump into battle, even though I know _you_ want to. You are a powerful mage, Tommy, but you are not invincible. Better to be safe than sorry."

"You're a mage?" Sym asked, confused - again. She was confused a lot around these people. "Are all phoenix riders mages?"

"No," Techno said. "Not all phoenix riders are mages, though the majority are. I don't _think_ Hanna is a mage - "

"I wouldn't know if I were," Hanna interjected dryly.

"She's probably not," Sym said with a shrug - and then when everyone looked at her, she hurried to justify her answer. "She didn't show any signs of being a mage before she was - taken by the Elders? Ran away? I don't know." Hanna frowned at her. "Hey, that's what the Elders said. They said you ran away. I didn't think you'd ever run away, because you were too protective of the younger children."

"I'm starting to hate your 'Elders'," Stress muttered. "Bunch of liars."

"Anyway," Techno continued. "I'm not a mage either. You don't have to be a mage to be a good phoenix rider."

"You're a damn good swordsman, though," Tommy said.

"What does 'damn' mean?" Sym asked. 

Hanna, Techno, Tommy, and Stress all look at her.

Hanna finally shrugged. "I don't know. I think it's like a swear word or something."

"Like fuck?" she said.

Stress snorted, clapping a hand over her mouth. Techno raised an eyebrow at Sym.

She held up her hands. "Is that a bad thing to say? Cleo said it."

Stress frowned. "She did?"

"In a _vision_."

"Oh..." Techno said softly. "Right. We need to have a talk about that."

"About what?" she asked.

"Your journal," Techno said, raising an eyebrow at Sym. "I need to speak with you privately." Luna chirped by her feet. "Fine, Luna. You can come too."

She sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Okay." Cleo _had_ rescued her. Techno wasn't going to try to kill her. Probably.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys no more daily updates :/ having some personal issues rn and it's hard to concentrate
> 
> I'll try to upload every four days or so, but don't hold me to that


	63. Arc 3: Chapter 6

Sym walked with Technoblade down the halls, Luna trailing after them. Techno's phoenix, which Sym learned to be named Ash; the big red one, and a fire phoenix, was still in the courtyard, content to sunbathe. Apparently, Hanna's phoenix was the yellow and white one named thunder; also male. 

Female phoenixes are rarer than males. 

Tommy's phoenix was the dark red and black one named Rust. Tubbo had the purple one, and George and Dream each have sea-green ones - twins, Sym was told, though only Dream's had been in the courtyard - another male named Radar. George's was the only other female; another sea-green phoenix named Ariel. She was very shy, presumably.

"So," Techno said, after a few minutes of silence. "How are you holding up, Sym?"

"Fine," she said. "Why?"

Techno stared her down. "Sure. I'm not stupid, Sym. I fought side by side with my enemy, and I trusted her with my life. I was the lord of the North until Stress came along. I was the first phoenix rider in nearly three hundred years. Don't take me for an idiot."

"I'm not."

"You just lost your home, Sym," Techno said. "I know it's not destroyed, but you're not going back." Sym stared at her feet. "You don't know  _ anything  _ about the world we live in. You lived in a different place, Sym. Nothing like where we are now."

"It can't be that different," she argued. 

Techno sighed, leading her into a small sitting room, lined with bookcases and maps. He reached into one of the bookshelves and pulled out a journal she very well recognized. "This is your journal."

Sym grabbed it, flipping through the pages. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw everything was there, and sat down heavily in one of the chairs. "How do you have it?"

"You left it behind, and Cleo picked it up," Techno said dryly. "I'm...interested in what you have in it."

Confused, Sym flipped it around. "What, you mean the plants?"

"No," Techno said. "I mean the code. I haven't been able to decode it.  _ Nobody  _ has been able to decode it. I'm guessing it's not based on the alphabet."

"Uh...I don't even  _ know  _ the alphabet, so no," Sym admitted. "I created it based on phonetics." 

Techno raised his eyebrows. "That's brilliant."

Sym flushed. "You make do with what you make do." She flipped to a page on which she'd written down the names of certain plants that were helpful for healing. "Look. ➥ ※⬲."

"Fern?" Techno said, leaning forward to see the arrows and symbols she'd made. "That says fern?"

Sym nodded. "Do you have a pen and some paper?"

Wordlessly, Technoblade stood up again and grabbed some paper from a different bookshelf, taking a thin metal stick as well. He handed them to Sym, who stared at the metal stick.

"What is this?"

"It's a pen."

Sym blinked at him. "What's a pen?"

"It uses ink to write," Techno explained slowly. "What did you use to write?"

"Charcoal," Sym muttered, pressing the pen onto the paper. It was far neater and thinner than her charcoal pencil. "Huh. Neat." She shook her head. "Anyway, ➥ makes the 'fuh' sound. ※ makes the 'err' sound. And ⬲ makes the 'nuh' sound. Fuh - err - nuh. Fern." 

Techno stared at her. "Exactly how many different phonetical sounds do you have?"

Sym opened her mouth, but shut it quickly. "Um. I don't know. I can't count that high."

"We're going to have some issues," Techno muttered. "Okay. What  _ do  _ you know about numbers?"

"I can count to fifty," Sym said. "I...it's..." she stuttered, trying to find the words that Hanna had described to her. "It's ten more than fifty."

"Sixty?" Techno said. 

"Oh, yeah," she replied. 

"You can do math?" He asked her.

"Basic math," she said, with a small blush. "Not anything complicated." She held up both of her hands, dropping the pen onto the table. "This is ten. And five sets of my hands is fifty. Add another set of hands and that's sixty."

Techno ran a hand through his pink hair. "Hanna taught you to do that?"

"Yep," she said. "Hanna has a brother in the village - a twin brother - that lent her some stuff in secret. Taught her. She taught me." She shrugged. "We're not supposed to write, or read. I can't read. Females aren't even supposed to count above ten, but most of us can count to fifty by the end of our lives, because of our ages." 

Techno stared at her. "Sound awful."

She shrugged again. "Wasn't too bad. What you don't know can't hurt you."

Techno inclined his head at her. "True enough." He picked up her journal off the table and flipped through it until he hit her drawings - and not of the plants. Her drawings of Stress, Cleo, and even Techno, by now - even some with phoenixes in the background. She now realized what they were - she'd thought they were birds. "What are these?"

"I...have dreams," she admitted. "Visions. I should've gone to the dreamer to get rid of them, I know."

Techno raised his eyebrows at her. "What is a dreamer?"

"They get rid of your dreams using herbs," she explained. "Makes you a bit groggy, but they should get rid of unwanted dreams. A bit easier to sleep." 

"They drug you."

"What does  _ drug  _ mean?" she asked. 

"It's..." Techno said. "...it's like a herb that you use to feel differently, or make you act differently. Some of them are bad for you."

Sym snapped her fingers. "Right. Like the seeds of poppies. They can kill you if you use them right with other herbs." 

Techno stared at her. "I didn't know that...but okay. I'll make sure to not ingest any poppies anytime soon." He tapped a drawing that Sym had drawn of two girls painting in a room, laughing. It was in black and white, but she could tell they had paint all over their clothing. "What's this?"

Sym flushed. "I don't know. I get up and I just draw things. Probably one of my dreams. They don't mean anything."

"They do," Techno said. He glanced at Luna, who was curled on the floor, sleeping. "Your dreams...visions...could be your magical power. The things you have drawn are the past, Sym. Specifically the past of someone I used to know."

Sym frowned as he glanced at Luna again.

"Do you know someone named False?" Techno asked her abruptly.

She shifted uncomfortably. "Not personally, no. Tommy mentioned her, and something about graduating - whatever that word means."

"She was a phoenix rider, and a friend," Techno said. "Have you heard of Sinner Symmetry?"

Sym glanced away, shuddering in the memory of a person named Kian. "Yes. I have. He was in one of my dreams, and it was like I  _ was  _ the __ girl named Sinner. People were standing behind me, at the gates of Hermitville, and we were talking. He didn't seem so nice. I was holding swords, and Cleo was like "Fuck off, Kian" or something like that." She saw Techno muffle laughter at the swear word. "And then he attacked me, and the vision ended."

Techno grew soberer, his smile faded. "False and Sinner Symmetry were the same person," he said softly. "Sinner was considered evil, but she wasn't - she was a young girl forced to do terrible things to save her friends, which included Stress and Cleo." He nodded towards her. "You know, if you didn't have black hair and grey eyes, I would assume you look like her."

"Yeah, which reminds me," Sym interjected. "What happened to Hanna? She used to have black hair and grey eyes. Why does she have  _ brown  _ hair and  _ brown  _ eyes now?"

Techno frowned. "She's been like that since we've met her. Her hair is a natural color." He ruffled his own. "Mine isn't." He sighed. "Anyway, False was a phoenix rider, and a water mage - a healing water mage. She had a phoenix named Luna as well...who looked exactly like yours. It leads me to believe that yours is the Rebirth of the Luna that I knew, just as Rust is the Rebirth of an old phoenix from the Nether that False met and talked to shortly before he chose Rebirth." Sym frowned, confused. "Rebirth is a choice that phoenixes can make before death; if they choose so they are reborn later - it never clearly states how much later - without memories, to another person. I'm sure you heard Stress talking about reincarnations."

"What are those?"

Techno gives me an unimpressed look. "A reincarnation is a rebirth of the same soul in a new body." He glanced down at Luna. "Like Luna, I think. I'm not sure. It could all be one big coincidence." He didn't look so sure about that last part. "Phoenixes can choose Rebirth. I'm not sure if Luna would, though. I thought she would've stayed with False." He sighed. "Guess we'll never know."

Sym nodded. 

"Anyway," Techno continued flippantly. "Since you're a phoenix rider, now - " He eyed her. "Is that okay?"

Sym shrugged. "I don't think I can go home." 

Techno nodded. "Okay. So. You're a phoenix rider. I'll have someone teach you how to read and write - "

"I  _ know  _ how to write," she protested.

"In the  _ common tongue _ ," he explained. "You can read and write in your own weird language, which is pretty cool...but not helpful right now. You can join Dream, George, Tubbo, Hanna, and Tommy with lessons, though you'll be in the same boat as Hanna. Tommy is the only one who has a phoenix that he can fly on, though Tubbo is close."

"Same...boat as Hanna?" Sym frowned. 

"It's an expression," Technoblade said patiently. "Means you're in the same place as her. You both have newly hatched phoenixes." He grimaced. "I'm surprised Luna talked to you. She wouldn't talk to False for like a week. Or four." 

Sym didn't really know how to respond to that. 

"Anyway, Dream and George's phoenixes are close to being able to fly on," Techno said. "Tubbo is maybe a week behind them. You and Hanna are like a month, or maybe two. Phoenixes grow differently." 

"Based on...?"

"Based on nothing we know," Techno answered. "It's just genetics or something. I'm not sure. We have two female phoenixes, now - Aria and Luna, out of nine phoenixes total, I believe. The previous Luna, if they are the same one, died too young to ever mate and have eggs. And now, of course, your phoenix is still too young."

"Luna's supposed to lay eggs?" Sym frowned. 

"No, of course not," Techno said, holding up his hands. "It's her choice, and her choice alone. But if she wants to...then she'll continue the race of phoenixes, and hopefully, we'll have more than nine phoenixes in the world." He sighed. "My point, in general, Sym, is that you and Hanna - were raised differently than us. That's not a bad thing...in most cases. While I'm sure you have other talents, just be aware that things in the North and the South are far different than the village you've always known. You and your friend who has amnesia need to learn the basics that we already know. I'm not putting myself above you - actually, I am, because I'm the greatest - but you need to learn how to read, write, and do basic math."

Sym sighed. "You sure I can't just learn how to do some math? I can read and write in my own language."

"Not if you're going to be a phoenix rider," Techno told her. "You need to know how to pass messages and communicate with others. Sometimes that requires silence, and writing - and reading. So no. But don't worry, I promise it won't be that hard."

Sym wasn't too sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this was bad, I still have my writer's block ahahaha
> 
> plz go away writer's block I need to be able to write -


	64. Arc 3: Chapter 7

Stress had volunteered to teach them.

Sym frowned out at the sunny courtyard, where the rest of them - minus herself and Hanna,  _ even  _ Luna and Thunder - were learning from Techno. Cleo had flown back south overnight, and Sym had found it a bit odd that she'd gotten her own room that she didn't have to share with other girls her age. Even yet, she'd gotten woken up around  _ nine _ . And nicely. No Susan to bang sticks on her door. 

They'd all had dinner in the dining hall, with a bunch of people that Sym didn't recognize. She'd mostly just kept her head down as people around her joked about things she didn't know, occasionally scratching her aching neck that her necklace was chaffing. She'd gotten a few looks about the collar, but nobody had said anything. Sym didn't want to explain the meaning behind the runes on her collar. It was also the last keepsake of her home - no matter how horrible everyone had said it was, it couldn't have been  _ that  _ bad. 

"I have a question," Sym said, as Stress was writing some letters down on paper. 

"Yes?" the Queen of the North asked her distractedly. 

"Don't you have better things to do than teach us how to write?" Sym asked. Hanna remained impassive. She didn't remember Sym in the slightest, no matter how the girl tried to remind her of her time in the village. Nothing. 

Stress laughed. "I guess, yeah, but part of my duties as Queen of the North is teaching the next generation of Phoenix Riders." Her face faltered for half a second. "And I guess that includes teaching you two how to read and write and do basic math." She slid the paper across the table, and Sym grabbed it to stop it falling off the table.

"I don't know how to read this," she said flatly.

"This is the alphabet," Hanna told her. "I...know it from somewhere." She blinked, furrowing her eyebrows. It was so odd, seeing her with brown hair and brown eyes instead of black hair and grey eyes. "I don't know what it means...maybe?"

"The alphabet is what is used to read and write letters," Stress explained patiently, tapping the first one, which looked like two sticks leaning against each other with support holding them together. "There are capitols and lowercases. Capital letters are used at the beginning of a sentence, or at the beginning of writing a name or place." She took her pen and wrote five different 'letters', three of which were identical, save the first, which was a bigger version of the last two letters. "That's my name. Stress. S - t - r - e - s - s." As she said the letters, she tapped the corresponding one on the paper in front of her. 

To Sym, Stress was spelled ⤄⤰⥻. Why did Stress write hers with two identical letters at the end? That made no sense. Maybe 'ss' made a different sound than 's'?

"You're Sym. That's the same S that's at the beginning of my sentence," Stress continued. Sym picked up her pen and wrote the squiggly line, which was apparently an S. "Then comes 'y', and then 'm'." Slowly, and with more practice drawing arrows, Sym wrote her name down on the paper. 

"And Hanna - "

"Like that," Hanna said proudly, turning her paper around to display - Sym glanced at the paper where the letters were placed - a capital H, an 'a', two 'n's, and another 'a'. Why were there two 'n's right next to each other? This language was weird. Hanna was spelled ⬳⥥⬲⥽ - why there was a need for two identical 'letters' was beyond her. Why not just H - a - n - a? It was pronounced the same way. Maybe.

"How does pronunciation work?" Sym asked, leaning forward and tapping her name. "Does s make the 'suh' sound, y make the 'ih' sound, and m make the 'muh' sound?"

Stress stared at her. "What?"

"My language," Sym grinned sheepishly. "It was from phonetics."

"Oh," Stress said. "No, this is not a phonetical-based language. Two letters together make different sounds - and in different words, different sounds."

Sym gaped at her. Beside her, Hanna showed the same confusion. "So two...letters...together can mean different sounds in different words?"

"Yes," Stress nodded. "For instance, the letter 'c' can make both the 'cuh' and the sound identical to the one an 's' makes."

"So..." Hanna said with a bit of confusion. "Sym - " she wrote out the three letters on her paper, in far neater handwriting than Sym herself. " - could also be spelled C - Y - M?"

"I mean, sure," Stress shrugged. "But that's just for writing and reading's sake. In Sym's case, her name is  _ her  _ name, and written how she wants it to be written."

"S - Y - M," Sym confirmed. 

"Like the word circus," Stress continued.

"What does that mean?" Sym asked, confused. 

"It's...complicated," Stress said after a moment. "Think of a place where people perform for other people. That's what a circus is."

"Oh," Hanna said.

"Anyway, the word  _ circus  _ is spelled with two 'c's." Stress wrote out it, and Sym frowned. Circus should be spelled ⥻※↾⥻, not C - I - R - C - U - S. "On this occasion, the first and last letters have the same pronunciation in the word itself, even though they're different letters. And the 'c' in the middle is making a very different sound than the first 'c'."

Sym was lost as she peered over the sheet that Stress had written up. There were only twenty-six letters! "How would one make the 'ooh' sound?" she asked hesitantly. 

"Typically through the use of two 'o's placed next to each other."

"You use two symbols next to each other to make a sound?" Sym asked.

"Letters, Sym, not symbols," Hanna corrected gently. 

Sym sat back in her chair. "This is stupid. You should have one of your 'letters' for every single sound."

Stress smiled at her. "Yeah, you're not wrong. But it is what it is." She held up the sheet. "Copy the alphabet. Until you remember it. And each of their sounds." She stood up, presumably to go back to her queenly duties or whatever else she did. 

"What about the rest of the sounds?" Sym called after her, Hanna snorting under her breath. 

"I'll teach you them later!" Stress called back. "But you're smart. You can figure it out!" The door swung shut behind her. 

Sym stared at the blank sheet of paper in front of her, and then at the pen in her hand, and then at the twenty-six letters - technically fifty-two if you counted the capitols - 

"HEY!" she said excitedly, and Hanna started. "I did  _ math _ !"

"...congratulations?" Hanna asked.

Sym sighed. "I divided twenty-six by two to get fifty-two!"

"Pretty sure the word is multiplied."

She rolled her eyes, and Hann gave a soft friendly grin. "Know-it-all. Next thing you know the sun isn't going to rise in the north and set in the south."

Hanna raised her eyebrows at her. Sym returned to her paper and copied the first letter.  _ A _ . The capital of 'a'. She wondered what sound it made.

"Sym," Hanna said slowly, interrupting her from writing  _ B _ . The capital of 'b'. 

"What?" she asked distractedly. She didn't understand capital and lowercase letters. What was the difference? She'd ask Stress later.

"The sun rises in the  _ east _ and sets in the  _ west _ ."

Sym dropped her pen on the table. It clattered in the empty dining hall. Outside, she could hear Tommy cheering, and someone's phoenix chirping loudly. Also the clash of metal against metal. 

_ "What!?" _

* * *

She'd memorized the alphabet - mostly - by dinnertime. It was still uncomfortable sitting in the dining hall with people she didn't really know. She wasn't good at names. Especially names as odd as these people had. Seriously...who named their kid  _ Mumbo _ ?

Seemed like a whole lot of mumbo jumbo to her. 

But with Hanna on her right, grinning at her as she muttered letters under her breath, trying to remember all fifty-two of them, and with Stress across from her, glancing up ever so often from her conversation to smile calmly at her, things were starting to feel a bit better.

And with Luna - sleeping, yet again - under the table, by her feet, and only waking up in brief intervals to steal food from her, she was feeling more comfortable. 

Whatever she was eating, it was good. Like,  _ really  _ good. Sure, she was too afraid to ask what it was, but it was delicious. 

"Sym?" Techno asked.

Sym looked up, straight as she'd been told to do - before remembering there was no need to do that, because she didn't have to do that anymore. Stress had reminded her throughout every single meal she sat in. Usually, meals were eaten in quiet. It was nice to see laughter and smiles at the table. "What?"

"Learn anything useful?" Techno asked her, sounding a bit uncomfortable. 

"Something she should've learned years ago," she heard Cleo mutter under her breath, a man in a blue shirt with black hair and odd glass-rectangles over his eyes elbowing her into silence.

She forced a smile on her face. "The common tongue is...difficult."

"Not to your liking?" Tommy, the boy with the phoenix named Rust, teased. 

She shifted uncomfortably. "I...wouldn't say that."

Hanna nudged her. "You're allowed to be truthful."

She swallowed. "Right. Okay, it  _ fucking sucks _ ." She'd heard a shorter man with blonde hair and a red sweater say that last word.

Sucks. Whatever that meant.

She heard muffled laughter and snorting around the table. "What did I say that was funny?"

"Nothing," Cleo said, fighting to keep what was obviously a smirk. She saw Sym's face. "No, it's not you - it's your situation.  _ Someone  _ better teach her what swear words are."

Techno inclined his head. "I agree with that notion. I'm sorry that learning the alphabet isn't what you're used to, Sym."

"I haven't been to school for nearly ten years," she said, taking a sip from her cup of water. Her face brightened. "Hey! I did math again!"

There was a bit of awkward silence.

"Nice job, Sym," Hanna said, breaking the quiet with a smile of her own. 

"I know, right," she said proudly. "The Elders would have  _ totally  _ Reset me."

Techno cleared his throat. "And, uh, Sym, not to be curious or anything - "

"Right, because that's an Unneeded Trait," Sym said seriously. "I'm a bit curious all the time, though. Probably why I was never Chosen."

"I'm just gonna pretend you didn't say any of that," Techno said, waving his hand. "Anyway, what does Reset mean?"

She frowned. "You guys don't have it around here?"

Stress exchanged a glance with Cleo. By now, most of the table was silent, listening to the exchange. "I'm sure we have different customs." 

Sym shrugged. "I can understand that. Anyway, it's when a person was being too unruly, or not following the rules closely enough. The Elders decide that they need to be fixed, so they wipe their memories and put them in another village." She pointed to Hanna. "I assume that's what happened to her. They  _ said  _ she ran away. I doubted it, even though I shouldn't have."

Cleo's mouth dropped. " _ Excuse  _ me?" she said in a higher-pitched voice.

Sym frowned. "You don't have that around here?"

"No!" Stress nearly shouted. "I mean...no. No, Sym, we don't  _ wipe  _ people's memories for not following the rules."

"How are you going to fix them then?" she asked, confused. These people were odd. 

" _ Fix  _ them - " Cleo cut herself off and took a deep breath. "It depends on what they did. Some rules are worse than others."

"Yes," Sym said thoughtfully. "I suppose so. What do you consider a serious rule here?" 

"...murder?" Stress said in the silence.

"What is murder?" She'd heard that word before many times. But she didn't exactly know what it meant.


	65. Arc 3: Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaannnnd we're back, folks! I had to rewrite the thing, so please don't be mad if it seems a bit rushed at the end; I wanted to end it before I lost interest in it :) 
> 
> updates will be once a day

Nearly three days passed with Sym gradually learning the alphabet. She could even write a few sentances, though they were mostly wrong, and when she was angry or mad they switched back to her symbols. Stress and Cleo - and sometimes Techno - sat with her and taught her things. Like what murder was.

The ending of a life. Curious. Sym thought that was death...but Techno had explained that it was the purposeful ending of another's life by another person. 

Why would anyone ever do that?

She learned not to swear, as well. She couldn't believe she'd been saying those words! The Elders - 

Sym took a deep breath and let it out. She was learning. Learning not to listen to her old life, and what the Elders had said to her. According to Stress - and Cleo, who was  _ way  _ blunter than the Ice Queen - her previous life had been one of a misogynistic culture that had trapped her and brainwashed her. 

She was learning. Slowly. Hanna picked it up a lot faster, and got to sit in the courtyard occasionally, now, with Tubbo, George, Dream, and Tommy, and learn about phoenixes.

Luna was touchy. More often than not, she spent a lot of time with Glacier and Rowan. She didn't talk to Sym often, but when she did, it was always hesitant and filled with snarky comments that often made Sym confused with their meaning. 

But the dawn of the fourth day had been different. Stress or Cleo hadn't come to her door to teach her anything, and she'd seen the castle fall into a sort of downcast. 

According to the calendar, it was May thirty-first. Whatever that meant. Was today a holiday, or something? Sym had eaten breakfast with Hanna, who was also confused with what was going on. She'd attempted to write a bit more before giving up and wandering the halls. 

"Do you know whose swords those were?"

Sym started. She hadn't realized she'd been staring at two swords, crossed over each other, on a wall below a portrait of a blue-eyed, blonde-haired girl. She turned to face Cleo, who looked red-eyed and sad as she walked up to Sym's side. "No."

Cleo reached out a hand but drew it back before she touched the pretty metallic looking swords. They looked as if they had runes in the side, but they were dark and silent. "They belonged to a friend. Her name was False."

Sym cocked her head. "Techno told me a bit about her and some girl named Sinner."

Cleo sighed. "Yes, I suppose he would." She gazed up fondly at the portrait. "She had a moon phoenix named Luna as well. We're wondering if your phoenix chose Rebirth." She hurried to clarify. "Rebirth is something phoenixes can choose to give them another chance, with another person. Their memories are wiped, and they move on." She sighed. "I'm glad I get to see Luna again, even if she doesn't remember me."

Sym shifted awkwardly. She didn't really know what to say. 

"Her birthday is today," Cleo whispered. "She would've turned twenty-three if she lived."

"How did she die?" Sym asked awkwardly.

"She was murdered by my mother," Cleo said.

"Oh."

"I just...you remind me of her, in a way," Cleo said. "I  _ know  _ you're not her, because you're a bit older than her, and you've lived as long as she has...but there's just something about you that seems familiar." Cleo sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Maybe I'm just going crazy."

Sym stared at the portrait of False. She didn't know what to do. 

"I probably am," Cleo snorted. "This is dumb. My friend is dead because we didn't think that my mother was a big enough threat."

"It's not your fault," Sym said.

"Yes, it  _ is _ ," Cleo said, turning her head away from Sym, but not before she saw tears glistening in the corner of the red-haired girl's eyes. "I should've saved her."

"It was your mother's decision above all else," Sym said. "She killed False, not you. I don't think False would want you to blame yourself." Maybe. She didn't know False very well. 

"You're right, she's too nice for that," Cleo sniffed. "Even after everything, she wouldn't want me to blame myself. But I'll do it anyway because she's not around to tell me no. And that's  _ my  _ fault."

She walked away.

As the day ended, Sym realized how much this 'False' person had impacted everyone's lives. She had saved Tommy, Deo, and Pigicial from the Nether. She had rescued Skeppy, A6D, BadBoyhalo, and Biffa in a tunnel against the Southerners when they were fighting the war. She had killed someone named Kian - Kian, whose name she  _ did  _ recognize, because he haunted her dreams at night. False was the reincarnation of someone named Ziyah, who, just like Queen Riarna and Queen Ivy, had been rebirthed into new bodies. False. Cleo. Stress. They'd had their phoenixes from their first rebirth as well - Luna, Rowan, and Glacier. 

_ People keep giving me odd looks _ , Luna had complained to her, in one of the few times she chose to speak to Sym.  _ It's not my fault if I'm a Rebirth of a previous Luna.  _

But Sym sometimes caught the moon phoenix staring at portraits of her grown-up self. Sometimes she stared herself in the mirror, and wondered, if like Hanna, her hair was a different color than black and if her eyes were a different color other than the grey she was so used to. She saw so many eye colors around the castle - brown, green, teal, blue, golden, even a brown so dark it looked black. 

But Hanna had no idea why her hair was brown. It just simply was. And for as long as Sym remembered, her hair had been black and her eyes had been grey. 

Questions. So many questions. The Elders wouldn't have approved.

She winced at that thought. No, no, the Elders couldn't control her anymore. She was free. 

Free. Whatever that meant. Sym choked down a laugh.  _ Free _ . From what? From being merely a  _ Choice _ to someone. She couldn't believe she'd once thought like that - still, sometimes thought like that. 

She rolled over on the bed, curling up under the covers. 

Near the foot of the bed, Luna shifted from her curled position, raising her navy and white head.  _ Go to sleep before I kick you out. _

"It's  _ my  _ room," she muttered. She didn't know why she couldn't sleep at this moment. She just simply  _ couldn't _ . 

Luna was silent in her head.  _ Sym, are you okay? _

"I'm  _ fine _ ," she said, though she really wasn't. "Stop worrying, okay? Everything is fine."

_ Sure doesn't sound like it. _

"Look, I didn't know you cared," Sym snarled, sitting up, anger flashing through her.

A green wave of light flashed from her, and Sym shrieked as the plant next to her bed, a mini tomato plant, burst into life. It had merely been flowering before...whereas now, red tomatoes were hanging from the plant's leaves. 

The burst of  _ something  _ hurt. 

She screamed as pain flashed through her, falling off the bed as she clutched her head, as something fought to get out, to escape, and it  _ did _ \- in small waves that flashed through the walls, out the windows, out the open balcony doors - 

_ FALSE!  _ Luna shrieked.

She didn't even care that her phoenix had called her a name that wasn't hers. It hurt too much, even as green light flared from her - 

And then she blacked out. 

* * *

She opened her eyes to find herself in a pitch-black room, with a black-haired, purple-eyed woman in a pretty violet dress standing in front of her. She let out a sigh of relief when she found that there was no more pain, and rubbed her skull.

"Symme Treh," the woman said.

She looked up, frowning. "How do you know my name?"

The woman was silent for a moment. "I told your friends that your death wasn't supposed to happen."

"What?" 

The woman continued, ignoring her question. "I told her that I do not mess with that that is not mine." She let out a long breath. "And I was right. I don't. But Ivy and Riarna and Ziyah needed to be in the future because two of them were queens and the other one was just simply for my - and their - selfish desires."

"I'm so confused," she said.

"False wasn't supposed to die," the woman said. "I don't mess with that that isn't mine." The woman looked at her and gave her a sad smile. "But you are  _ my _ daughter. And I put you before the world, which is not something I should do, but I do anyway."

" _ Excuse me _ ?" she shrieked. 

The world faded.

* * *

She had a huge headache. 

Sym groaned and rolled over, only to come face to face with the blue eyes of a phoenix. She inhaled sharply before remembering Luna, and blinked a few times before sitting up. 

_ Sym! You're awake! _ the phoenix said happily. 

Sym blinked again, looking around. They weren't in her room anymore. They were in a giant room with what looked like white cots and curtains surrounding some of the beds. Outside the window she can see cherry blossoms blooming, and - 

Wait. 

She knew for a fact it was late April.

Cherry blossoms bloomed in  _ May  _ and maybe April, at least in the early parts. She may not know how to spell things, but she  _ did  _ know plants. Frowning, Sym glanced around the room.

What looked like a small lemon tree in the corner was baring ripe lemons. Cleo had talked to her about it three days prior...it had been green bulbs, not yellow. Why were they  _ ripe _ ?

How long had she been out?

_ Nine hours,  _ Luna told her.  _ You did some magic, though. That's good. _

Sym grimaced as her hand went up to her throat. Her sarcophagus hurt. She itched a spot underneath the collar, still staring at the lemon tree. "What - " Her voice sounds hoarse. " - what did I do?"

"You...managed to put every single plant that carries food into the season, and everything else bloomed," Stress said.

Sym looked over to see the wide-eyed queen. "I did  _ what _ ?"

Stress smiled grimly. "Your power is unusual, Sym." She hesitated. "Oddly familiar in a way, but I don't exactly know  _ what  _ it is." 

"It hurt," Sym whispered. "It  _ hurt _ ."

Stress stared at her. "It's not supposed to hurt."

Sym felt lost. She knew nothing about magic. Techno had even said that she might not have magic, because  _ he  _ sure didn't, and not all phoenix riders had magic. She swallowed. "Did I - did I hurt anybody?"

"No, you didn't," Stress confirmed, and Sym sighed in relief. "But you did scare quite a few. Especially Luna. She went absolutely bonkers."

_ I did not _ , Luna grumbled. 

"Yes, you did," Stress said, and Sym realized the moon phoenix must've been projecting to everyone in the room. 

Technoblade burst into the room, and Sym cringed for a brief second, before remembering that he wasn't going to send her to the Elders of the village and have her Reset. Stress's mouth twitched at her reaction, and her eyes looked furious, but the Ice Queen didn't say a thing, for which Sym was glad. 

It would take time. Time to forget. To get over the mess that she remembered as her childhood. 

"Oh, you're awake," Techno said. "Good."

"Are you...mad?" Sym whispered.

"What? No, I'm not mad." Techno sighed. "Okay, maybe a bit, but not at  _ you _ . Why would I be mad at you?"

Sym gestured around. "Maybe because I messed up the ecosystem?"

"It's fine, Sym," Stress said patiently. "I caused a few storms in my day. Cleo had her fair share of earthquakes. Don't even get me started on what  _ Tommy  _ has done."

"Oh, god, Tommy," Techno muttered. "That boy will be the death of me." He shook his head. "Nah, I'm mad because I should have warned you that your emotions may set off some of your magic. I just didn't think about it because I was busy teaching and you were learning to read and write - how's that going, by the way?"

"Good," Sym said pleasantly, and Stress nodded in tandem, agreeing with her. She felt a growing sense of Pride, smashed it down, and then realized she was allowed to feel Prideful and let the smile appear on her face. 

"Your neck isn't looking too good," Stress noted. "What's up with your necklace?"

"What?" Sym blinked, her hands going to her choker. "Oh. This is just marking when I grew old enough to not have to be looked over by the matrons. It also was supposed to protect us from - " Her voice broke. " - magic. We got runes on it when we turned twenty-one as well."

Techno's voice was sharp. "Can we get someone to look at it?"

"What? Why?" she asked, not meaning to sound protective, but sounding it nonetheless. 

"I think it might be interfering with your magic," Techno said. "Those idiots might have tampered with galactic runes."


	66. Arc 3: Chapter 9

She had no idea how she got to this point - a demon, a  _ she-demon _ , specifically, was examining her collar. Stress, Cleo, and Techno stood off to the side, anxiety rolling off them as the demon, Naria, her name was; the she-demon has  _ red eyes _ , for heaven's sake. And was from the Nether. And had helped False & co. escape from it. 

This was getting slightly ridiculous.

"There  _ is  _ magic in here," Naria said after a few minutes, removing her slightly-clawed hands from Sym's neck. "It's...difficult to understand what it does." 

"We should - "

"Do  _ not  _ remove it," Naria said through narrowed eyes. "I know that much. It will cause immense harm to the user, and in extreme cases, death."

"But Hanna removed hers," Sym pointed out.

Naria whirled to face it. "What? Who? How?"

She shrugged. "She was my friend. Disappeared. Now she doesn't remember anything. But she  _ had  _ a collar before...and now she doesn't."

"Well, that leads us absolutely nowhere," Cleo sighed. "But at least we know it's somehow possible to use it."

"I recommend you don't try to use magic anytime soon," Naria said. "You're lucky this blast didn't kill you." 

Sym gulped. "No promises."

"As usual, it's been a pleasure, Naria," Stress said sweetly. "Thank you for your help."

Naria shot a smile back at the Ice Queen. "Of course. I'm always interested in...intriguing things like this." Her eyes roved over Sym one last time. "Call me if anything happens. You know how to contact me."

"We don't, though," Cleo pointed out.

Naria smiled. She had fangs. "That's the point."

Sym yelped as Naria disappeared in a puff of smoke. "She can teleport?"

"Demons can have mages too," Techno said warily. "Nobody knows the full extent of Naria's powers. But she's helpful. In some situations. My next move was to cut it off. Good thing I contacted her first." 

"Yes," Sym said weakly. "Good thing you did." 

* * *

Sym stared at the sword. She felt like it was staring back. 

That was ridiculous. It was an inanimate object!

One she wasn't supposed to pick up. Yet she was trying to learn how to  _ fight _ , so, you know, using a sword was slightly useful.

"It's not going to  _ bite _ ," Tommy said, rolling his eyes.

"No, no, it might," she said. 

"Wha - "

"Tommy, stop bothering her," Techno said, and Tommy rolled his eyes. "Sym had harsh rules enforced on her, and one of them was not touching weapons."

"Yes," she said weakly, still staring at the sword. It wasn't even a real sword. Just a wooden one. She could do this. "Girls weren't allowed to pick them up."

"What?" Tubbo asked. "Why?" At least he wasn't snickering like Tommy. She wanted to punch - no, no, she didn't. That would be rude. 

"It was just one of the rules," she said with a shrug. "You know, like no going outside the walls, no learning how to read or write, or do math, or show any of the Unneeded Traits." Sym hesitated. "Curiosity, Courage, Selfishness, Hatred, Curiosity, Willfulness, and Love."

" _ Hatred _ ?" Tommy asked. "What if you really didn't like someone?"

Sym threw him a wry look. "You either kept it hidden, in my case - I was never an exemplary female - or you just didn't dislike things."

"That's legit not possible," George said. 

"It was what it was," she sighed, bending down and picking up the sword, cringing, half-expecting it to hurt when she picked it up.

Honestly, it just felt like a lump of wood. She held it in her hands, blinking. People didn't jump out of the woods and attack her. She wasn't going to be Reset. 

"AHHHH!"

Sym screamed and whipped around, the wooden sword still in her hand, and hitting Tommy directly on the side of the head. "OH! I'm so sorry - "

"Don't apologize," Dream said. "He deserved it."

"What? No, no he didn't - "

"Wow, Tommy, good job," Techno said, looking down at the boy who was on the ground. "You weren't even ready. Sym would have beat you in a battle."

"I scared her on purpose, idiot," the blonde-haired boy grumbled as Tubbo hauled him to his feet. "In a real fight, I would have won."

"Well," Techno said. "Someone is still standing, and you were on the ground. So I think we all know who the real winner is."

_ Not you, Tommy,  _ Luna said in everyone's mind.  _ Not you _ .

"Shut up, woman phoenix." 

"I'm really sorry," Sym said. 

"It's fine," he grumbled. "But I'll get revenge."

"That was karma, though," Hanna pointed out, speaking up. "You scared her, and you got hurt."

"Shut it, woman." Hanna opened her mouth, looking outraged. 

" _ Okay _ ," Techno said. "The six of you can shut up now." He waited until it was silent. "Tommy. You deserve this anyway. Come here." Tommy's eyes brightened and he walked towards Techno, standing next to him. "The other five of you. Try to knock us down."

" _ WHAT?"  _ Tommy squeaked, as Dream laughed wildly, raising his sword and straightening his smiley-face mask. "I'm going to so get hurt - "

"Less talking, more ready to get injured, you nerd," Techno grinned, his eyes alight with glee. 

"Aren't you going to teach me how to use this?" Sym said, holding the sword in her hand limply.

"Grip it loosely - but not too loosely - and swing," Techno said. "I prefer to teach by example."

Sym felt like she was going to get hurt. Dream raised his sword, a semi-evil grin on his face, and Tommy tried to pull his act together, but he looked nervous.

Great. 

"I don't know how to use a sword either," Hanna whispers.

"Yeah, well you have a few days on me," Sym mutters, raising his sword as Dream, George, herself, Hanna, and Tubbo circle around Techno and Tommy. 

She has a feeling she's going to get injured. 

And she's right. 

Tommy 'accidentally' clobbers her across the shoulder and she falls to the ground, hits her head, and wakes up in her room with a massive headache, a nervous-looking Hanna, and an icepack on her aching head. 

"What  _ time _ is it?" she muttered, rubbing the space between her eyes. She can fix this. 

Hanna smiled. "It's like eleven at night."

"I've been out for  _ six hours _ ?" she squeaked, sitting up, and receiving a massive twinge of pain, causing her to wince. She waved a hand when Hanna moved to get up and help her from her position in her chair. "Did - did we win?"

Hanna snorted. "No. But if you're wondering, Dream got revenge for you by hitting Tommy across the back."

"How'd Techno react to all of this...violence?" Sym asked, genuinely curious. 

Hanna rolled her eyes. "He laughed. Then he beat all the rest of us. I'm surprised that he even needed Tommy. Though the kid is the second-best fighter in the group. First, if Dream doesn't have his shield."

"Let me guess," Sym said, lying back and throwing an arm across her head dramatically. "I'm  _ dead last _ ."

"...yep," Hanna said. "Don't worry, I would be last, but Tommy targeted you and you fell." 

"I can't believe I'm being beaten by a nineteen-year-old," Sym groaned. "This is so embarrassing."

"I mean, it's not, really, based on your past experiences," Hanna said helpfully. "You and I are both learning how to read. At least we  _ can  _ learn. Tubbo is dyslexic."

"What's that mean?" she asked.

"It means he gets his letters and words mixed up," Hanna said, after a bit of careful deliberation. "Tommy helps him."

"And here I thought he was a jerk."

"I think he cares," Hanna said. "He just acts like a delinquent ninety-nine percent of the time."

Sym stared at the ceiling. "What is a percent?"

As usual, Hanna was careful and helpful when she explained it to Sym. 


	67. Arc 3: Chapter 10

The necklace - or collar - Sym didn't really know what to call it - bugged her. She had used it as a source of safety, had thought it was just something people  _ did _ , like how Techno said he'd take Tommy and Tubbo to a bar when they turned eighteen - but it was something more. 

It blocked her  _ magic _ .

Which also bugged her. Because when she'd used it, just for a second - before the pain, there had been awe and happiness and relief. She had loved it. Then she'd hated it, and then she'd blacked out. 

She knew it existed. After she'd used it, she could feel it in the back of her mind, as if behind a wall. She didn't try to break that wall. She was scared. 

They said it would hurt her.

Stress and Cleo and even Hanna were trying to figure out how to remove it. Hanna had no lasting effects and didn't even  _ remember  _ having it. It wasn't working out very well.

But hey, at least she could read and write. Barely. Sort of. 

And Luna was growing up. She was the size of a wolf now. 

Sym was learning how to use a sword - barely; she was pretty terrible at it, and she was struggling and falling behind while the others were racing ahead. She felt lost. As if she were missing something.

Sometimes she analyzed things and pictured how to take Dream or George down whenever she was facing them. Then she would quickly realize that she had no idea half of the words she just said in her own mind, and had no idea how to go through with it.

Her headaches came back every day. She would lie in bed and picture her childhood, but it was slowly fading away - as if it had never existed in the first place. The last three years were clear as a bell, but anything before that just felt  _ fake _ .

Of course, she was being ridiculous. Maybe she was just coming down with a cold or something.

And then there were the dreams. 

There were many - some repetitive, some happy, and some would wake her in a cold sweat. 

She would be walking down a corridor of mirrors, and she had short blonde hair and blue eyes and a nasty smile on her face as she faced someone made of fire and ash and smoke and  _ death _ . Someone was whispering in her ear so softly, saying things she didn't understand. 

There were dreams about a house on top of the mountains, and a young kid that would laugh around her feet and cling to her. 

There were dreams about a black-haired woman with purple eyes in a blue dress, facing down the same person made of death and smoke and darkness, with green light in her palms and defiance on her face that Sym saw reflected in the face of the blonde-haired girl from the mirrored corridor. 

There were dreams about plants wilting, the sun setting, the moon disappearing, and life dying. 

There were dreams about fire ravaging the house that she'd once stood in, in other dreams, and she was clutching the body of the dead boy to her chest. She always woke up with tears on her face with that one.

She didn't  _ understand _ . 

Those were the cloudy dreams - the dreams with only pictures and images instead of visions. 

The worst ones were the dreams in perfect clarity.

There were dreams where she shot an arrow and hit a girl in the chest in the middle of an arena with Tommy and Pigicial and Deo. There were dreams where she was fighting the black-haired dark-eyed man and he stabbed her in the back.

There were dreams that she flew on the back of a grown-up Luna. 

Then there was the single, reoccurring dream of Luna turning to ash - to the word  ** REBIRTH __ ** echoing in her mind. She was crying - then pain, then darkness, and then nothing at all. 

That was the only dream she ever told Cleo and Stress, who looked unsettled when she'd mentioned it. 

"That was...how False died," Cleo had said. Nothing more.

Sym had left it at that. Perhaps a flicker between the bond of what everyone was sure was a Luna Reborn. Perhaps something mystical, something she didn't understand.

And the purple-eyed woman who had claimed to be her mother. For all Sym knew, her mother was back in the village. 

But try as she might, she couldn't remember a mother. She knew she'd had one in the village. She'd just never thought about it until now.

...why?

She lay curled in a ball, not able to sleep, thoughts running a million miles per hour through her head. The collar around her neck, while not tighter, felt as if it were slowly choking her to death. 

Deep breaths. Deep breaths. 

She blinked.

_ Flashes of blood. Silence. Pain. Hatred and rage and overpowering  _ **_ fear _ ** _ \- cries, and shouts and the screech of a phoenix in the background, then freezing cold and Stress was screaming.  _

Sym clapped a hand over her mouth, trying to stop the shaking. What was going on? What was  _ happening _ ?

Blink. 

_ Cleo and Stress were younger now. She watched them as they were dragged out of the gateway, their arms extended, the latter wailing as she attempted to wrench herself out of the guard's grip to get to her.  _

_ She would not cry. She was calm. She watched as the children were led away, and she was forced to stay. _

_ Everything would be okay. _

She was shaking so hard that the entire bed was shaking. She didn't want this. Didn't know what it was. 

Blink.

_ A house, burning, on a hill.  _

_ A little boy in her arms. _

_ "...love you, True," he whispered, before he died.  _

_ She held him tighter in her arms and cried.  _

WHAT DID THIS MEAN?

Blink. 

_ "Ziyah!" Cleo said happily, except it wasn't Cleo, it was Ivy. "Ziyah, look!" she - or she, from Ziyah's eyes - watched as Cleo-who-was-Ivy made a wall of rock pop from the ground.  _

_ "Nice job, Ivy," Stress said. _

_ "Thanks, Ri."  _

_ She stumbled back. The sunlight in the glade was too bright. This was wrong. All of this was  _ **_ wrong _ ** _.  _

_ "Ziyah?" Riarna-that-looked-like-Stress said worriedly. "Are you okay?" _

She couldn't get them out of her head. 

_ Hold the pass.  _

_ Hold the pass. _

_ Luna roared from behind her - Luna, who was as big as Ash, raised her claw and slapped a soldier to the side. She was breathing hard, sweat, and dirt on her face as she lifted her sword and fought on. _

_ Riarna and Ivy would get the people out of there. All she had to do was hold the pass. _

_ Hold the pass. _

_ She fell, and Luna's cry was the last thing that echoed in her mind before the everlasting silence.  _

Sym screamed into the silence of the castle.

_ "One day, my daughter," her mother with the purple eyes and black hair whispered. "You will be the greatest warrior of them all." _

_ "I don't know how, Mama," she said back. "They bully me and knock me down - " _

_ "You will always get back up, True," her mother said. "Fight. Fight for your people. Fight." _

Someone was by her side, holding her down. Green light burst from her, spilling through the corridors and out the windows and into the darkness of the surrounding woods.

It  _ hurt _ . 

_ Her sword lay on the ground in front of her, mere inches. She could not raise her arm to lift it. She wasn't strong enough. There was blood on the ground and fire in the air and she wasn't strong enough to fight it. _

_ She heard his laugh echo in the corridor of mirrors. She could not fail her family. Her sisters. She had two of them, one with red hair and the other brown - she would not fail them. She would not let them die at the hands of a murderer.  _

_ She had to save the life on the planet. Her mother was trying to stop the stain that had already spread from his horrible magic that leaked and burned and murdered and killed. She had to delay him. Just a little bit longer.  _

_ So she picked up her sword and turned to face the Dark God of Death.  _

Her throat hurt from the screaming. Green light blinded her, flashed through her eyes. She could not stop it. She could hear people shouting, screaming, hands, holding down her wrists as they flailed - 

_ "My dearest True Symmetry," her mother whispered to her as she lay, dying, the fires extinguished, the Dark God forced back into his earthly tomb. "You do not deserve this fate." _

_ "It's....okay," she managed. "Are....my...sisters....?" _

_ Her mother closed her eyes and she saw a tear leak down her face. "I am sorry, True. I could not save them." _

_ At least she would see them in whatever came after. Her mother was the Goddess of Life. She would see that they would see each other again. _

_ "Would you like to try again?" her mother murmured.  _

_ "...what?" _

_ "Would you like to be reborn? I am the Goddess of Life, yes, but the phoenixes are mine as well. I ask this, my daughter....would you like to be reborn with your sisters?" _

_ "Yes." _

_ "You will have no memory, no inkling of this, you will not even know that you are my daughter. Your sisters will be your best friends. Are you sure?" _

_ "Yes." _

She 

was

still

screaming. 

_ "Goddess of Life, I choose Rebirth," she murmured, uttering the words that Luna had said seconds before. She had not held the pass. But she had held it long enough for Ivy and Riarna to get as many people out of their kingdom as they could. _

_ She should have done better. _

**_ "It shall be granted, Daughter of Life." _ **

_ Somewhere, far away, she could hear her friends - no, her  _ **_ sisters _ ** _ \- screaming her name. _

Pain. Pain. Everlasting pain that blew her senseless. Why couldn't it go away? Why couldn't it leave her?

_ "I hold an option for you, False," Miracle said, as she turned to walk through the doorway. "Your friends think that this war has come to an end." _

_ "Has it not?" she demanded, spinning to face the purple-eyed woman. "I deserve my peace." _

_ "You have deserved your peace for a thousand years," Miracle said. "But every time, you have chosen to move on." _

_ "What?" _

_ "You are my daughter, False Symmetry," Miracle said. "A thousand years ago, you were my Truest Symmetry." _

_ "I thought I was Ziyah - " _

_ "That was your second life," Miracle interrupted. "And this was your third. This was supposed to be the final one. But that upstart Kian had you killed." _

_ "Kian's dead," she said, horrified. _

_ "This life was supposed to be your last," Miracle said. "You and your sisters." She watched as her  _ **_ mother  _ ** _ pointed towards Stress and Cleo. "They have lived every life with you, though they do not remember it. Each of them have chosen to move on." _

_ "Why?" she whispered. _

_ "Because the world needs you," Miracle said simply. "I am the Goddess of Life, the Goddess of Rebirth. I gave you a choice, and three times, you have accepted. I promised that this would be your last. I did not expect you to pass into a grave." She stared at the purple-eyed woman, horrified. "I have tried my best to give you a good life, this time around, False, but it did not come how I expected it to. The God of Death is rising. He manipulated it so I could not see you, could not control life the way I wished to. I could not give you the easy route. I am sorry." _

_ "It's fine," she said briskly. "Who is the God of Death?" _

_ "You died trying to defeat him in your first life," Miracle said. "You were never a warrior - you were an artist, a herbalist." Her mother smiled. "But when evil threatened your family you raised your sword and you fought him while I removed his taint from the planet. The city of Everlasting Peace was lost, and with it - your family. But you won - you forced him back into his tomb, and after a thousand years, he rises again." Miracle looked at her. "My daughter, reviving you after such a short period will cause my power to diminish. You must defeat him." _

_ "Why can't you?" she pointed out. _

_ "Because only the child of a Goddess can defeat a God," Miracle said softly. "And only the child of a God can defeat a Goddess." Horror trickled in - understanding. "And vice versa. Understand this, my child. If I fall, Life itself falls. You must defeat him and his son, or everything you know and love will fall to ruin." Miracle tilted her head. "But you do not have to. I can see the future that you choose to walk through this gateway. You have earned it. Nobody will judge you. I see a valiant fight without you, and then a fall into darkness. The world will never recover, and everyone you know, including me, will be defeated."  _

_ "Well, can't Cleo or Stress kill this God?" she demanded. _

_ "They're adopted." _

_ She snorted. "Of course they are. Of  _ **_ course,  _ ** _ they are." She aimed a kick at a rock and then yelled out loud when her foot passed right through it. "This is STUPID. All I want is a break from the fighting." _

_ "It is your choice to make." _

_ "Yeah, but by telling me that everyone dies, you're not really making this an equal-sided choice." _

_ "Everyone dies with time, False," Miracle said patiently. "Even if there were to be no war, no God of Death, everyone rises and falls with the Cycle of Life." _

_ "Yeah, except Cleo and Stress and I, apparently," she muttered. "False Symmetry never dies." _

_ "You did. Three times." _

_ "It's an expression, mother." She spat out the last part scathingly. _

_ Miracle sighed. "Time is wasting, child." She pointed towards the door. "If you choose to be Reborn, I will only be able to contact you in your dreams - and only once, in your most desperate hour. I gave you Rebirth twenty years ago. It will take all my strength to put you into the Cycle of Life so soon." Miracle watched her. "This will be the final time before the end. I will not have the strength to keep the evil at bay if you and your...friends...fall." _

_ She breathed in. Breathed out.  _

_ "Do it." _

_ One last time.  _


	68. Arc 3: Chapter 11

Oh, how had the time flown?

Her name was Alexandra Carolina. She was sixteen years old. She had brown hair and brown eyes. She loved to draw. She loved to play in the snow. 

She died in fire and pain and suffering in the arms of her older sister. 

She chose Rebirth.

Her name was Riarna Carolina. She was eighteen years old. She had black hair - dyed - and brown eyes. She was a phoenix rider. She had the powers of ice and sleet. She died in an ambush, shortly after giving birth to her daughter. 

She chose Rebirth.

Her name was Stress Carolina. She was twenty-two years old. She had short brown hair and brown eyes. She was a phoenix rider to the phoenix Glacier, and trained alongside the greatest warrior to ever live - her friend False Symmetry, and Technoblade. She had the powers that her grandmother had. She was the Queen of the North; the Ice Queen. 

She would get revenge for the death of her friend.

**~Cleo's POV~**

Her name was Savannah Evalangine. She was the adopted sister of True Symmetry and Alexandra Carolina. She was the eldest of the three. She had red hair and green eyes and liked to scream "I'll break your legs!" to anyone that tried to hurt her family. 

She died in fire and ash and smoke at the hands of the Dark God of Death.

She chose Rebirth.

Her name was Ivy Evalangine. She was the Queen of the South, and united the nations to the best of her ability, eventually becoming friends with the Queen of the North, Riarna Carolina, and the greatest warrior to ever walk the land at that time, Ziyah Symmetry. She had power over earth. 

She died with Riarna in an ambush of corrupted mages.

She chose Rebirth.

Her name was Clemintine Evalangine. She was the daughter of the Queen of the South, but lived in a village with her friends for most of her life. She was a phoenix rider to the phoenix Rowan. 

She killed her mother shortly after the murder of her best friend and her phoenix. 

Revenge came easily. Death came easier. Regret stayed forever. 

**~False's POV~**

Faces. Faces and pictures flashing before her eyes. 

Her name was True Symmetry. She was seventeen years old, had short blonde hair, and blue eyes. She was the daughter of the Goddess of Life, and had fallen against the Dark God of Death. 

She chose Rebirth. 

Her name was Ziyah Symmetry. She was nineteen, had blonde hair that was dyed pink and blue at the tips because she had lost a bet with Riarna. She was the friend of the two Queens, one of the North, and one of the South. She died holding the passage between the two cardinal directions against corrupted mages.

She chose Rebirth.

Her name was False Symmetry. She was twenty, had long blonde hair and light blue eyes. 

Her name was Sinner Symmetry. She had the power over water and Life. She was a phoenix rider to the phoenix Luna. 

She died in the castle of the South, stabbed in the back by her best friend's mother.

She chose Rebirth.

Her name was Symme Treh. 

Symmetry.

She had grey eyes, black hair, and listened to everything someone said. She was a herbalist, and one day would be a Choice for a male. She never ventured outside her village. 

Her name was **False Symmetry.**

And she would come back and destroy the persons that had threatened to kill her family. 


	69. Arc 3: Chapter 12

She awoke with little pain - perhaps a soreness in her throat and in her shoulders. 

Shouting. There was shouting - and she could feel heat as she leaped to her feet.

** Her name was False Symmetry.  **

The windows in the medical room were shattered. Outside, the trees were on fire. She could feel a sickness in the air. Black tendrils crept on the walls, stopped by green tendrils that shone with light. She looked at her feet, and realized that they were coming from  _ her _ . She saw the bit of blonde hair that tickled at her neck, and she grabbed a fistful - and sobbed in relief at its paleness. She knew that if she looked in the mirror, her eyes would be blue.

** Her name was False Symmetry. **

She reached up to her neck and pulled off the collar. It came off easily; it had torn at the back. She was wearing a shirt and a pair of leather pants. 

She could hear fighting in sight.

_ FALSE!  _ Luna screamed in her head.  _ WE CAN'T MOVE -  _

_ I'm coming,  _ she sent back desperately.  _ Just a bit more, okay? _

She took off at a dead run through the castle that she recognized more and more - her memories of her former life no longer blocked off as they had been to Sym. The walls were crumbling in, and it was light outside, maybe midday, but the castle and the trees and the shrubbery  _ burned _ . 

** Her name was False Symmetry. **

She jumped up and tore the swords off the wall, holding them in her hand like she knew so well. Her friends were in trouble.

People were attacking. 

She burst into the courtyard at a dead run. 

Halted.

There were people fighting corrupted mages at the edges - she saw Iskall and Grian and Skeppy and BBH and Etho desperately trying to get past the corrupted magic. She saw Tubbo on the ground, and Tommy standing over him, she saw Hanna back-to-back with George, fending off four attackers; there was a nasty scratch on her face and she looked weary -

There were four people and four phoenixes surrounding a dark-haired figure. There was a barrier around them; a barrier made of fire and  _ darkness _ that nobody could enter; she saw Joe banging on the side of it as she leaped over the body of a corrupted mage and made straight for the half-sphere.

The phoenixes, including Luna, stood shock-still. She saw Glacier and Ash and Rowan, and the people stood still as well - Techno and Stress and Cleo and Dream. They were fighting it, but they were impossibly still like statues that had been frozen in time.

As her feet hit the ground, life flowed from her, and the black tendrils that were infecting the fauna retreated. She saw someone cry her name -  _ her  _ name - as her feet hit the barrier and it blew apart in a wave of darkness and life. 

She saw the black-haired man turn and raise his sword as hers came down in a parry onto his head, the vibrations shaking her and making her jaw hurt, her teeth clenched. 

It was Kian. 

But he had red glowing eyes and blackness that fell from his body - and while she knew it might be  _ Kian  _ that stood there, she knew that it was not Kian that controlled the body. 

** Her name was False Symmetry, and she would not be afraid. **

"YOU!" he spat with a howl, and False saw Techno jerk forward, only to be halted again by some invisible energy. "Why couldn't you just  _ stay dead _ ?"

"I could say the same for you," she said coldly, their blades parried, as she fought against the power of a God. "Kian."

_ Kian  _ sneered. "I am not that stupid  _ boy _ , True Symmetry."

"It's False," she scoffed, neatly ducking under one of his blows. "My name is False Symmetry." 

"Daughter of the Goddess of Life," he mused, nearly slicing her hand off if she hadn't backed away. The ringing of steel echoed across the field; her friends and the phoenixes frightfully silent. 

"Son of the God of Death," she replied coldly. 

He chuckled. "Close, but not quite."

She stared at him. His red eyes, instead of black - the sheer power that flowed from him - that wasn't Kian, that was the God of Death in the body of Kian.

He smirked at her as the realization shown openly on her face. "You were always smarter than you looked."

"Let. My. Friends. Go." She growled the words in emphasis.

"Your pitiful friends can die with  _ you _ ," he snarled back. "They call themselves warriors, but he - " this was directed at Techno. " - doesn't even have any  _ magic _ ." Kian scoffed. "What kind of phoenix rider doesn't have magic?"

She saw Techno's eyes narrow angrily, and she mashed her foot into the ground, directing a bit of life between the bonds that shaped the darkness into the five people and the five phoenixes. 

Techno  _ moved _ , and Kian pushed her away with a burst of darkness in time to meet Techno's angry one-handed swing of his sword. 

She fell to the ground, coughing, and saw Stress rubbing away a bloody nose, and Cleo staring at her in awe. 

Techno yelled something

The five phoenixes lay slumped on the ground - but she knew they were merely unconscious. Black marks were trickling up Stress's palm, and False leaped for her friend, who was staring at her hand in horror. She clasped it, took in a deep breath, and then released some of the life into her friend, blowing away the darkness.

"False?" Stress whispered. 

She gave a brief, tight nod in return, and then Stress stiffened, and she saw Cleo stiffen as well, and she turned in time to see Techno thrown across the field, coming to a halt and lying still. Frightfully still. She hoped he was just frozen in place like Cleo and Stress - but she didn't know.

She didn't know.

** Her name was False Symmetry, and she would not be afraid. **

"Just  _ stop moving _ ," Kian howled at her, and she grinned in his direction as she forced away the tendrils of magic that tried to creep up her legs.

"You won't get me that easily," she spat. 

And then they were fighting again.

A smooth dance that she didn't know how she'd forgotten - parry and block and parry and parry and duck and flip and spin and parry - over and over and over as fires raged around them and the red-glowing eyes of Kian-that-wasn't-really-Kian threatening to send her into unconsciousness. 

But she was losing. 

The life was slowly creeping away - she was the  _ daughter  _ of a Goddess fighting a God in the body of the  _ son  _ of the same God - how could she possibly win? How could she  _ hope  _ to win?

** Her name was False Symmetry, and she would not be afraid.  **

She could see her own fearful blue eyes reflected in Kian's face. She could feel her fear trickling through her. 

** She would not be afraid. **

She was so afraid. She was utterly terrified. 

The battle was frozen. She was only unfrozen because she had the power of a Goddess - because she was the daughter of a Goddess - she could only defeat him.

Only her.

Miracle couldn't help her. Nobody could help her. They could fight and they could try but only  _ she  _ could finish the job. 

She lost a sword, saw it swing into the fires, could not hope to get it again. She dived and picked up Cleo's sword and fought on. 

Blood trickling down her face. A shallow cut, but an annoyance.

Why had she thought she could do this?

She was a warrior. She was a killer. She had killed him before, she could do it again - no. 

No, she had fought him before, a thousand years before, and she had died. She had died and she had died and Cleo and Stress had died as well, but only  _ she  _ could kill the Dark God of Death and if she were to fall, the world would fall.

No pressure or anything.

She lost her second sword, and then it was only Cleo's in her hand, but darkness surged through her and she managed to duck in time as Cleo's beautiful sword was sliced in half and she rolled away, weaponless.

"Give up, girl," he spat. "Your mother was weak."

False raised her chin up. "Maybe. She was never a fighter. But at least she wasn't a killer."

Kian scoffed. "You certainly take after me, then."

She shivered - and threw herself to the side, through a fire, her nerves burning and letting out a small whimper as the fire burned through her sleeve and onto her skin. 

It hurt like hell. 

"You are dead,  _ False _ ," Kian hissed, hovering over her. 

Her magic was dried up. Spent. She could feel the weariness creeping through her. 

After all this, they were dead anyway. After everything she had done - after Rebirth time and time again - after all the pain and suffering, she was going to die anyway. 

Kian lifted his sword to plunge it into her prone chest. 

There was no fight in her.

** Her name was False Symmetry, and she -  **

A startled cry. 

False blinked open her eyes in time to see a sword protruding from Kian's body, and rolled aside as he fell to the ground. 

The fires blinked out. The darkness disappeared. The air cleared.

False's jaw dropped as she stared up at Technoblade, who had a sword that glowed black runes and eyes that burned an angry red, a sneer on his face. Darkness leaked from him. 

"You are not the only son of the God of Death," he spat. 

She watched as Kian died, a small part of her that might be the lingering remains of Sinner enjoying the final death of the person that had hurt her so much. 

She stared up at Techno, who swayed on his feet, blinking as his eyes returned to normal and the darkness retreated back into him.

"What the  _ hell _ ?" she said. 

** Her name was False Symmetry, and she wasn't afraid. **

Techno smirked at her. "Technoblade never dies."


	70. Arc 3 Finale & Epilogue

She was exhausted, but she was alive. They were all alive. Kian - a Reborn Kian - and the Dark God of Death was dead, or in his tomb for another thousand years.

That would be a problem for the next person, though. She'd dealt with enough. 

"So," Cleo bit out, as they were eating dinner a few days later when everyone could finally show up. "Techno, when were you going to tell us you had a God as a father?"

"Never," Techno said. "I'm not born the way False and  _ Kian  _ were." he spat the last part. "I was a  _ mistake _ , and so he cast me out and forgot about me because I wasn't powerful enough for him." He shook his head. "It's not that relevant anyway."

"No, it was pretty relevant," Tommy said. "Why didn't you unfreeze earlier, Mr. All-powerful-demigod?"

Techno grimaced. "I forgot how to unlock my powers, to be honest."

Tommy scoffed. "What a loser."

"Hey, at least I killed a God."

"It was a team effort," False pointed out with a smirk. 

"As for  _ you _ \- " Cleo said. " - WHAT THE HELL, FALSE? Or is it Sym, now?"

"It's False," she said patiently. "It was Sym before, and then before that it was False, and before that, it was Ziyah, and before that True." Cleo's eyes bugged out of her head. "I know you had the same dreams." 

Cleo shook her head, a smile on her face. "You're ridiculous sometimes, you know that?"

False smiled. "I know." She went back to eating her food out of the wrecked dining hall. 

"Well,  _ I _ , for one, am glad we all made it," Stress said. "It was really creepy to not be able to feel magic." She shuddered. 

"You know, I was wondering why Tommy was being so weak," False said. "That explains it."

"Hey! Shut up, woman! At least I didn't die!"

False rolled her eyes. "I've lived a hundred years.  _ You  _ shut up."

"Didn't you die before you were twenty every time?" Techno wondered.

False glared at him. " _ Irrelevant _ ."

"No, no, that's pretty relevant - "

"A toast!" Etho interrupted. "To a new beginning!"

"Is that wine?" Tommy said, sniffing his own glass.

"Yours is grape juice," Stress winked. "You and Tubbo and Pigicial aren't legal yet."

"I'm  _ nineteen _ ," Tommy scoffed.

"That's not legal," Techno said, raising his drink in the air. "But sure, yeah, fine, a toast. To not dying, or whatever."

"You're literally the son of the God of Death - "

"That's not  _ relevant _ \- "

" _ Ahem _ ," Cleo said, clearing her throat. "To people not dying, then!" she raised her glass in the air and took a big gulp out of it, wrinkling her nose. "Ugh, this tastes nasty."

"At least it's not grape juice," Tommy muttered.

"Wine  _ is  _ grape juice, Tommy," False reminded.

"Shut up, woman." 

Stress flicked a bit of her magic in his direction, and False smirked when Tommy raised his glass to drink his juice and the entire iced grape juice cube fell onto his face. 

"HEY!"

"The weather is pretty unpredictable," Stress said seriously, laughing behind her hand. 

"That's bullshit - "

"Shut up, Tommy," nearly half the table said. Tommy rolled his eyes and tossed the grape-juice-ice-cube onto the ground, where it shattered.

* * *

** Epilogue: **

They repaired the castle, and things went back to normal. False beat Tommy hundreds of times out in the castle grounds, because he kept insisting he was better than her. He was finally able to beat her with water magic, though, because that seemed to be gone. 

In fact, all her magic was gone. Not a single drop remained. 

That was fine, though, she'd never really been one for power. If that was the cost of the battle, so be it. She didn't really care. Sure, she missed it - if only to prank people - but it wasn't the biggest disaster in the world.

After everything that had happened, it seemed like a small loss. 

Techno didn't talk about his powers, or what he could do, and from what False saw, he didn't use them. That was fine. She knew he was nothing like what Kian was, though if his father  _ hadn't  _ cast him out, she dreaded what he might have become. 

Luna grew up, and False was able to fly on her again. They shared stories, and though Luna never remembered her past life, False told her enough about it that she could pretend she recognized. 

She had dreams of her past lives, but she only really remembered the life she'd had three years ago with Cleo and Stress. There were brief memories of True, of Ziyah, but there was nothing she explicitly remembered doing or being. 

More phoenix eggs hatched, and she was eventually able to welcome more and more phoenix riders into the castle. From the North, they moved to the mountains, where False and Techno uncovered the castle that had belonged to the Ziyah, Riarna, and Ivy hundreds of years ago. Here, they trained the next generation of riders. 

The corruption vanished with the God of Death, and while False didn't know if he was dead or merely locked in his tomb again, she decided not to worry about it. There was no hint of darkness anywhere, so she only assumed he was dead. 

Cleo and Stress came together to unite the land into one, both of them ruling from their respective castles. People came south again, and mages blossomed with newfound magic.

She and Hanna went back to their old village, and freed the people of it, sending the Elders across the sea for the other people to deal with. That is if they didn't hit a storm and sink the boat. Which would really suck. Hanna found out that she had indeed been Reset, but never found a cure for the corrupted magic that was used against her. 

Naria discovered a way to remove the collars, and the people of Sym's village were freed from their way of life to the highest extent. False knew it would take a bit of growing in, but there would be no new generations of that. No more Unneeded Traits, no more women to be only Choices for men. No more staying inside the village walls, no more misogyny. 

She pranked people and celebrated holidays with her friends, and enjoyed the new sense of peace that existed within the lands. 

Sure, there were a few skirmishes - corrupted ex-mages with annoyance at their loss of magic - but they quickly quieted down after False or Techno gave them a  _ visit _ .

She taught the students how to fight and use the greenery to protect themselves, and often had Stress put them through tests of ice and wind to survive in the cold. She had them do mazes with their phoenixes - mazes of trust, with Cleo changing the passageways to increase annoyance. 

The world was changed for the better. She saw her friends nearly every day, and even when she didn't, they all got together monthly for dinner and a few games. 

Sure, there were the sad days where she sat in the corners with flashbacks of Sinner and battles and things she had done years ago. Sure, there were times when it was hot and she didn't like the feeling of a shirt around her neck, because it reminded her too much of the collar she had worn. Sure, sometimes there were days she forgot how to read. 

But not once did she regret the choice she had made to be Reborn. 

** The End **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to all the people who followed along with False's tremendously long story! There were a few bumps in the road, and if the ending seemed rushed, it was because I had to rewrite the entire thing. Sorry.  
> It's been nearly four months, hasn't it? Wow. I can't believe we've come this far. Thank you for sticking by my side, and welcome binge readers and/or new readers!  
> As a bonus, though not necessary to the story itself, here is the link to the Google Doc that contains Sym's Phonetical Language!
> 
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dbqm9G74AhpZ1KBWHZ-qvpkzF-nro94XntMiUwTdlUg/edit?usp=sharing
> 
> ⤑➥ ⤱ ⁂ ⥹⤐☋↺ ⤞⤑⥻ ⤱ ⁂ ⤨⤰⥹⤐ ☋⤰☋↾⤾⬵☋⤰☋.
> 
> Have a brilliant day, and make sure to check out my other fics!
> 
> ~Aria Cinabun


	71. Discord channel

Look you might have been hoping for an epilogue epilogue

nope sorry

but I have a discord channel now! Join if you want to :D

  
https://discord.gg/yBqMHjh


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